INTRODUCTION

In the sixth century BC Buddhism had just been founded.
The Vedic religion was almost getting extinct and Hinduism as we know it today
was at a nebulous stage. Jainism at that time was not only a mature and living
religion but also one claiming a hoary antiquity. All its tenets had fully
developed by that time and these tenets have remained almost unchanged all
these 2500 years. Jainism is thus the oldest living religion of India.

But age alone is not what gives importance to
Jainism.This religion is important
because it has greatly influenced practically all-religious thinking of India.
If, as is thought by many, the spirit of Indian religious life was 'life and
world negating' it might be said that it was mainly due to the influence of
Jainism and similar other religions of that time on Indian thought. It also
shows the triumph of the Jain spirit over the 'life and world affirming'
attitude of the Vedic people who failed to divert the main stream of Indian
religious thinking from pessimism to an optimistic and joyous path. The
aversion to the killing of animals, the belief that all ascetics are holy
people (and conversely that a person in order to be holy should be an ascetic),
the theory of the transmigration of the soul, and that 'getting born in this
world is itself a punishment' all these are parts of Hindu thinking. They seem
to have been adopted without much change from Jainism and similar other
religions which existed in India in the sixth century BC. (The evidence of the
existence of such religions, though scanty, is available from the Buddhist and Jain
texts.

Yet, the Jains constitute a small proportion of
the Indian people. They probably number a little over three million in a
population of nearly 700 million. How did such a small community exercise so
much influence? The answer probably lies in the fact that the original
religions of the Indian people at least from the Indus Valley times were
similar in many respects to Jainism. These religions got somewhat modified by
the impact of the Vedic cult, but ultimately the ancient religions of India, of
which Jainism was one, prevailed Jainism has thus not so much influenced as
provided a guide-post to Hinduism to get back to its original course.

Since Jainism itself has not much changed or developed in
the course of these 2,500 years, it has in a sense no history. In fact, the
last change in Jainism was introduced by Mahavira himself when he proposed an
additional vow to the original four vows of Parshva the immediately- preceding Tirthankara.The Jains themselves recognized this
absence of change by hesitating to write any history of their religion after
Mahavira. Indeed, when the Digambaras write any history (or mythology)
of their religion they stop with Mahavira. The Svetambaras have no doubt
at least two works, which continue the history even after Mahavira, but these
too stop after a few centuries.

This is, therefore, a history of the Jain people
and not so much a history of their religion.

In the history of the Jains the most important
figure is Mahavira. He was a contemporary of the Buddha. This we know from the
Buddhist works only, for the Jain works never mention the Buddha.
Mahavira lived for 72 years of which for the last 30 years he was a teacher.
The Jain works give some details for the first 42 years of Mahavir's
life, but tell us little about his life as a teacher. (In the case of Buddha
also the Buddhist works give few details of his life after he became a
teacher).

Jainism did not get much royal support in the first few
centuries after Mahavira. Indeed, the Jain's themselves claim only one royal
patron in these centuries. He was Samprati, grandson of Ashoka, and ruler of
Ujayini. Epigraphic evidence, however, shows that Ashoka himself was a protector
of the Jains and had appointed officers to look after their welfare,
though he may not have been a patron. Again from epigraphic evidence we know
that in the 1st century BC king Kharavela of Orissa and his queen were patrons
of Jainism. (The Jain works mention Ashoka only in passing, and
Kharavela is not known to them at all). People engaged in commerce and trades
were drawn towards Jainism from at least the early centuries of the Christian
era.This we know from the extensive
remains of the sculptures gifted by them in the Kankalitila in Mathura.

We do not know how the Jains broke into two
groups, the Digambaras and the Svetambaras. Perhaps there was no
actual schism, the two groups just drifted apart due to geographical reasons,
the Jains of Gujarat and the neighboring areas emerging as the Svetambaras
sometime in the 5th century AD.

By perhaps the 4th century AD Jainism had spread to South
India. Southwest Karnataka from the very beginning became its center. Though
the Jains were found more or less all over the South, in this part of
Karnataka and specially in the Tulu speaking areas, Jainism was a force to
reckon with for many centuries. They received patronage from the rulers of many
dynasties, and occupied important administrative and military posts under them.
In fact some of the Western Ganga rulers themselves became Jains.
There were many learned Jains in the court of the kings of Karnataka.
They wrote books on logic and philosophy and some of them produced important
works on mathematics and medicine also.

In the matter of Architecture and Statuary, the Jains
produced remarkable pieces of art in a number of places in Karnataka and Tamil
Nadu.

In the 12th century Gujarat the rulers appreciated the
learning of the great Jain polymath Hemachandra by making him their
confidant. The Gujarat Jains continued the tradition of learning. In the
16th century, Abdul Fazl counted Hira Vijaya Suri as one of the 21 most
learned persons of the Mughal Empire, and Akbar himself invited him to his
court. The Jains maintained their fame in visual arts. They constructed
beautiful temples in Shatrunjaya, Girnar, Ranakpur, Abu, Deogarh, Khajuraho,
and other places in northern India. The contribution of the Jains in the
cultural heritage of India has been high.

The Jain religious philosophy has not changed much
in all these years. The only development one can think of is that they have
elaborated their logical system known as the Syadvada.The original enunciation of this doctrine
given in the canonical literature is not very clear. The later logicians have
developed it into a complete system. The important point to notice, however, is
that no Jain author has tried to refute this doctrine or to advance a
rival system. There is no controversy in Jainism comparable to the one that has
been going on for centuries on the interpretation of the Hindu Vedanta-Sutra.
It is not that there have been no differences at all among the Jains in
the matter of their religion.There
have been many groups and sub-groups within the community. But when one comes
to analyze the differences among them it is found that these relate to trifling
matters of ritual, or to details of the mythological stories. Even the great
division between the Digambaras and the Svetambaras are in
relation to such petty details.

As the Jain temples and monasteries grew rich with
fresh endowments, the persons in charge of these establishments became
powerful. New groups arose within the community to protest against such
domination. One such Protestant group arose among the Digambaras in the
Agra region in the 17th century.They
were known as the Terapanthis. Among the Svetambaras also there
rose a new group in the 15th century that believed that image worship was not
mentioned in the canon.

These controversies have not affected the essentials of
the Jain religion. Never the less, they have made the Jains think
about their religion and have kept Jainism alive.

ORIGINS

Jainism is one of the oldest religions of India.We do not know exactly when it was
founded.The Jains themselves
say that Jainism has existed since eternity and it had like the Jain
universe no beginning and would have no end.Most of the saints of Jainism belonged to remote ages, millions and
billions of years ago.However, for
practical purposes we may take Mahavira, their last great saint, as a
historical figure.He was a
contemporary of the Buddha.

Mahavira was the twenty-fourth and last of the Tirthankara
(ford-makers) of this age.The
twenty-third Tirthankara was Parshvanatha.He is said to have lived two hundred and fifty years before
Mahavira.The historicity of Mahavira
is difficult to prove from Jain sources alone because these were reduced
to writing quite late.In fact one of
the two main sects of the Jains, the Digambaras think that no
records of the period of Mahavira have survived.The other sect, the Svetambaras assert that the oral
traditions of the time of Mahavira were actually put down in the written form
in the fifth century AD, i.e., a thousand years after Mahavira.Some account of the life of Mahavira, can be
obtained from this literature.According
to the Svetambaras, Mahavira was born in Vaishali a place about 45 km.
from Patna on Chaitra, Shukla Trayodasi in 599 BC.He was Kshatriya prince belonging to Jnatra
clan.He died in 527 BC in Pavapuri
near Rajagriha.King Shrenika and his
son Kunika were the rulers of Magadh during his time.

The historicity of Mahavira is sought to be proved by
comparing these facts with those obtained form the Buddhist sources.The Pali Buddhist texts on the life and
sayings of the Buddha are claimed to have been compiled shortly after his
death.They mention quite often a
Nataputta who belonged to the sect of the Niganthas (free from bonds.)According to these sources Nataputta died in
Pava thirty years before death of the Buddha.The rulers of Magadh during the Buddha's time were Bimbisara and
his son Ajatashatru.

It is asserted that the person mentioned as Nataputta in
the Buddhist texts was the same as Mahavira, the Jnatraputra of the Jains.The name of the place where he died is the
same in both the sets of sources.Shrenika and Kunika, the two kings mentioned in the Jain sources
were Bimbisara and Ajatashatru mentioned in the Buddhist (as well as in the
Hindu Purana) texts.In fact the
full name Shrenika Bimbisara is mentioned in the (Jain) Dasasruta
Skandha.1

Ajatashatru's son according to the Buddhist sources was
Udayabhadda.According to the Jain
sources Kunika's son was Udayin.Since
the names of the sons also are similar Kunika is identified with Afatashatru.

Jain, as the
name of this particular sect does not occur in the Buddhist sources.The reason is that both Mahavira and the
Buddha were called Jina by their respective followers, and the term Jain
would thus technically denote both the sects.However, the Niganthas according to the Buddhists were known for extreme
asceticism.This is a characteristic,
which differentiates the Buddhists and the Jains.There is little doubt, therefore, that the
Niganthas are the same people who were known as the Jains in later
days.In fact the old Jain
literature such as the Acharanga Sutra and the Kalpa Sutra
describe their own community as that of Nigganthas.

However, the historicity of Mahavira is not crucial to
the history of Jainism.Mahavira was
not the founder of Jainism in the sense that the Buddha was the founder of
Buddhism.As stated earlier the Jains
claim that their religion had existed from time immemorial, and Mahavira was
the last great saint and reformer of the religion.The most important of these reforms was the introduction of five
vows in place of the four obtaining in the system of Parshva ( the twenty-third
Tirthankara of the Jains).

The later history of Jainism is marked by a number of
schisms.But one might say that
different groups existed among the Jains even at the time of Mahavira
himself.There was an ascetic called
Keshi who followed the system of Parshvanatha.2He had a long discussion with Gautama, a disciple of
Mahavira, and finally accepted the latter's views and sincerely adopted the
"Law of the five vows".3Thus Parshva's group and Mahavira's group, originally separate,
were united.However, new schisms
appeared according to the Svetambaras, even during Mahavira's
lifetime.The first schism was by his
own son-in-law Jamali 14 years after Mahavira's enlightenment.The various schisms are known as nihnavas.

The most important schism, the eighth nihnava
according to the Svetambaras, occurred among the Jains a few
centuries after Mahavira.At that time
the community broke into the two sects, the Digambaras (the sky-clad)
and Svetambaras (the white-robed).It is interesting to note that the two sects describe the life of
Mahavira differently. The Svetambaras say that Mahavira lived as a
prince up to the age of thirty.He had
married and had a daughter, Anojja or Priyadarshana.His granddaughter Yashovati was born after Mahavira had left
home.Digambaras on the other
hand believe that Mahavira never married.

Before we come to the difference among the sects, we may
consider the basic religious philosophy of the Jains.These are practically the same for both the
sects and have remained almost unchanged from very early times.

"According to Jain
philosophy, matter, which consists of atoms, is eternal, but may assume any
form, such as earth, wind, and so on.All material things are ultimately produced by combination of
atoms.Souls are of two kinds: those,
which are subject to mundane transmigration (samsarin), and
those, which are liberated (mukta).The latter will be embodied no more they dwell in a state of perfection
at the summit of the universe; being no more concerned with worldly affairs
they have reached Nirvana."

The souls (Jiva) with which the whole world is
filled are different from matter; But being substances they are also eternal.
Subtle matter coming into contact with the soul causes its embodiment; being
then transformed into eight kinds of karma and thus forming as it were a
subtle body, it clings (ashrava) to the soul in all its migrations.The theory of karma is the keystone
of the Jain system.The highest
goal consists in getting rid (nirjara) of all karma derived from
past existences, and acquiring no new karma (samvara).One of the chief means of this end is the
performance of asceticism (topas).The Jain system differs from Buddhism in emphasizing asceticism to a
greater extent, even to the point of religious suicide: and in the total
evidence of taking life of any kind, such avoidance being described as the
highest duty."4

The methods by which a Jain
could get rid of the acquired karma and attain Nirvana have been
prescribed.He should posses right
faith, right knowledge and right conduct. These are called tri-ratna.
He should also observe the following five vows:

1) Ahinsa
(non-killing).

2) Sunrita (truthful
speech).

3) Asteya
(non-stealing).

4) Brahmacharya
(celibacy), and

5) Aparigraha
(non-possession).

As mentioned earlier Parshvanatha had prescribed only
four vows.Mahavira splits
Parshvanatha's fourth vow, which was perhaps Aparigraha into two.It is said that Brahmacharya was
already included in Aparigraha, but Mahavira made it explicit so as to
remove any misunderstanding.

It is clear that these vows are difficult for a layman to
practice.Laymen were, therefore,
required to observe these vows to the extent permitted by the conditions of
their lives.

It will be noticed at once that the Jain point of
view of human life and its end are completely different from the Vedic
ideals.There is no mention of
transmigration of soul or of the theory of karma or Nirvana in
the Rigveda.The Vedic view of
life is joyful.The Vedas prescribe the
performance of Yaga, where animals were sacrificed.These were done to please the gods and also
for taking the sacrificer to paradise after his death. The paradise itself was
a delightful place where there was no death.Vedic heaven was full of light and all desires were fulfilled there.5Drinking of Soma (perhaps as an
intoxicant) was a method of gaining all desirable objects on the earth.6There is no thought in the Vedas of
ascetic life while on earth.7 The Vedas envisage a priestly class who would correctly recite the
Vedic hymns at the time of the sacrifices.The Jains on the other hand neither have any hymns nor have they
any priestly class of their own.Indeed
it is specifically mentioned that their great saints, the Tirthankara,
were Kshatriyas i.e., not Brahmans.Similarly, meditation (yoga), the atomic theory of matter
(Vaisheshika), the non- perishing of matter (Sankhya) etc., would
take the Jain thinking nearer of those systems of Indian philosophy
which are not based on the Vedas.It is
also interesting to note that Kapil, Kanda, etc., the founders of these
non-Vedic systems were known as Tairthikas.There were eighteen or more Tairthikas according to the
encyclopedists. The similarity of this name with Tairthikas is striking.
(Strangely enough, the Buddhists also called those who held heretical views, Tairthikas.)

Mahavira, and to some extent the Buddha, ignores the
existence of the Vedic religion.When
in their youth they left their homes to become ascetics they are not protesting
against any Vedic or Brahmin rule.In
fact, it appears that they were doing just what was thought proper for a person
of religious bent of mind in that part of the country. The Buddha after trying
it abandoned the extreme form of asceticism.Thus, he was actually reacting against the practices followed by the Jains
and similar other ascetics, when he founded his new faith of moderation.

An important thing about Buddhism and Jainism is that
there religions are not much concerned about-worldly things. Also, they have no
theistic theories.Present day
Hinduism, on the other hand, is much pre-occupied with these things. Signs of
emergence among a section of the people of such thoughts become apparent in the
post-Vedic literature such as Upanishads.These show that a new post-Vedic religion was emerging.The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is one
of the earliest of the Upanishads.It was perhaps compiled within a hundred years of the time when the
Buddha and Mahavira lived. Some of the dialogues in this Upanishad took place
in Videha (modern Mithila) which is not very far from Magadh
where these two great teachers preached.Thus both in time and in space, the two ages, the Upanishad and the
Buddhist-Jainis, are not far from each other.Yet, one feels that they belong to two different worlds together.We may as an example take the questions the
king Janak of Videha asked Vajnavalkya in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:

Janak Vaideha said: "When the sun has set, O
Yajnyavalkya and the moon has set, and the fire is gone out, and the sound
hushed, what is then the light of man".

Yajnavalkya said: "The Self indeed is his light; for
having the Self alone as his light, man sits, moves about, does his work, and
returns."

Janak Vaideha said: "Who is that Self?"

Yajanvalkya replied: "He who is within the heart,
surrounded by the pranas (senses), the person of light, consisting of
knowledge....."8

It is quite clear that the questions as well as the
answers are other- worldly.They do not
relate to any human activity.

As a contrast we may cite the question which king
Ajatashatru of Magadh asked six of the non-Vedic teachers preaching at
that time in his kingdom.One of the teachers
was Mahavira (Nigantha Naraputta) himself.

The question King Ajatashatru9 of Magadh
asked, was, "The fruits of various worldly trades and professions are
obvious, but is it possible to show any appreciable benefit to be derived from
asceticism? Sanditthikamsamanna-phalam?" Each of the
six teachers gave a different answer.These answers need not concern us at the moment.The point, however, to notice is that the
question is quite mundane and very natural for a king, but it is in a different
plane altogether from the one king Janak of Videha has asked.

We may thus take it as a working hypothesis that we are
here dealing with two communities, one non-Vedic and the other post-Vedic whose
outlooks were altogether different. The Buddhist scriptures name sixteen tribes
living in northern India at that time.The land where they lived was also named after the tribes.Of these tribes, the Kurus, the Panchalas,
the Machchas, the Saurasena, etc., followed the post-Vedic and
Brahmanic religion.The people before
whom the Buddha preached, his new religion or one of whose existing religions
Mahavira reformed were the Magadh, the Angas, the Kasis,
the Kosalas,10 the Mallas, the Vajjis, etc. The
religions of these people were non-Vedic. There is one initial difficulty in
this hypothesis.the Vajjis included
eight confederate clans, of whom the Lichchhavis and the Videhas were the most
important. Videha, in Buddha's time, was republic.This does not go very well with the fact that Janak was the king
of Videha or with the fact that he followed a Brahmanic or post-Vedic
religion.Perhaps by Buddha's time
Videha had become a republic.One way
of getting out of the second difficulty would be to imagine that in Videha both
the groups of religions, post-Vedic and non- Vedic existed side by side.This was perhaps also true of Kashi and
Kosala, where also both the communities visited the areas, people of his group
would flock about him while the other groups would ignore him.(The position is same even today. If a Hindu
religious teacher visits a town his followers go and greet him but the Muslims
are not even aware of his visit).

The people of Anga (Bhagalpur
area) and the Magadh Patna, Gaya, area) do not seem to have followed the
Vedic religion, for they were very much disliked by the Vedic people.We have the curse in the AtharvaVeda
(V. 22.14): "To the Gandharis, the Mujavants, the Anga, the Magadh,
like one sending a person a treasure, do we commit the fever".The Vedic people called the Aryans
who did not follow their religions Vratyas.Vratyas are frequently mentioned in the Vedas, and other
Vedic literature such as the SrautaSutras and the Brahmans.The whole of the fifteenth book of the Atharva
Veda deals with the Vratyas. Unfortunately the style of this book of
the Atharva Veda is not clear and not much information about the beliefs of the
Vratyas can be gleaned out of it.One
thing however is clear.The Magodhas
were somehow connected with the Vratyas. We have in the Atharva Veda (XV.2.a)
"Of him in the eastern quarter, faith is the harlot, Mitra the Magadh,
discernment the garment, etc....." Similarly in the southern quarter Magadh
was the mantra of the Vratya; in the other two quarters Magadh was the
laughter and the thunder of the Vratya.What Magadh means here is not clear.It may mean a resident of Magadh or more probably a bard
or a minstrel. The Yajur Veda (XXX. 8) does not look at Vratyas kindly.They are included in the list of victims at
the Purushamedha (human sacrifice).11 The Sutras mention Arhants
(saints) and Yaudhas (warriors) of the Vratyas corresponding to the
Brahmanical, Brahman and Kshatriya.The similarly of the word Arhant with the word Arhat used both
for the Buddha and Mahauria by their respective followers is noticeable.

We thus see that in the period under discussion Mahavira
was preaching perhaps one of the Vratya religions which was prevalent in that
part of India.This religion came to be
known as Jainism in later days.Most of
the religions in this area advocated an extreme form of asceticism.Gautama, who later became the Buddha,
originally joined this main stream.Apart from some changes in the philosophical principles, Buddha's main
modification was that he deprecated the severe asceticism of these religions.

Jain Yoga as
also the Yoga of Patanjali is meditation, preferably in a secluded place.We have the Indus valley evidence of the
figure of an ascetic sitting in a forest. The figure found on a seal shows a
man sitting in a forest surrounded by a number of animals.The man has a mask with horns.The figure has been variously interpreted as
that of Shiva as Pashupati or Shiva as Mahayogi.But there is no doubt that it is a figure of an ascetic either
human or divine.Thus the idea of
asceticism though foreign to the Vedic people was already existent in India in
the proto- historic period.

The remarkable similarity between the stone statue of a
nude man, found in Mohenjodaro and of the statue said to be that of a Tirthankara
found in Lohanipura (Bihar) has often been pointed out.13But the time interval of almost 2500
years would incline one to think that the similarity is accidental.

That Jainism is a continuation of some pre-Vedic religion
is not a new theory.G. C. Pande wrote
in 1947, "The anti-ritualistic tendency within the Vedic fold is itself
due to the impact of an asceticism which antedated the Vedas. Jainism
represents a continuation of this pre-Vedic stream, from which Buddhism also
springs, though deeply influenced by Vedic thought."14 Similarly
A.L. Basham says, "In the eastern part of the Ganga---basin
Brahmanism was not so deeply entrenched as in the west and other non-Aryan
currents of belief flowed more strongly."15Basham's point that all these other currents of belief were
non-Aryon cannot, however, be maintained.There is scarcely any non-Aryan word in the sacred literature of
Jainism.Thus at least one, of these
pre-Vedic currents of belief was Indo-Aryan in origin. It existed in India
before the Vedic people arrived in eastern India.It has survived to the present day in the form of Jainism.Also, it is not Buddhism and Jainism and
other pre-Vedic religions of the eastern Ganga basin which have
influenced Vedism and converted that religion into Brahmanism, and then
Hinduism.It is from the pre-Vedic
religions that Brahmanism has learned all about asceticism, meditation, yoga,
the theory of karma, the theory of the transmigration of souls, Nirvana,
and finally the pessimistic view of life.

In a somewhat different context Dandekar, has said almost
the same thing: "One may, of course, not go to the extreme of asserting
that Hinduism turned its back completely on Vedic beliefs and practices, but
one has nevertheless to admit that the impact of Vedism on the mythology,
ritual and philosophy of classical Hinduism has been of a superficial
nature."16 Dandekar was developing his thesis that " in
the long history of Hinduism, ....Vedism occurred more or less like an
interlude".17

It would thus appear that Jainism, and many other
religions existed from pre-Vedic times in northern India. Only Jainism remained
practically unaffected by the impact of Vedism.The other religions which coalesced to form classical Hinduism,
were affected by Vedism, albeit, as Dandekar insists, superficially.

Both Buddhism and Jainism
were parts of the philosophic atmosphere prevailing in Magadh and the
near about areas in the sixth century BC. We can get a feel of this atmosphere
from canonical books of the two religions, for, as we know both of them purport
to give accounts of the actual happenings in the lives of the Buddha and
Mahavira respectively.The Buddhist
works are a little more helpful in this matter, because they give generally
greater details of the beliefs of the rival sects.Out of these several competing sects two or three, if we include
the Ajivikas) religions emerged triumphant.This was perhaps mainly due to the quality of leadership and the
organizing capacity of the Buddha and Mahavira (and Makkhali Goshala in the
case of the Ajivikas).

One thing about the religious
atmosphere of this period is quite clear.Among the religious people the most respected ones in those days were
the ascetics.It was not necessary
foran ascetic to belong to higher
castes like the Brahmans or the Kshatriyas.Even a slave would be respected by his erstwhile master if he
joined an order and became an ascetic.The Buddha once asked king Ajatashatru of Magadh whether he would
ask a slave to come back and serve him again if he heard that the slave had run
away and become a recluse.

Ajatashatru answered "Nay rather should we greet him
with reverence, and rise up from our seat out of deference towards him, and
press him to be seated.And we should
have robes and bowl, etc.,... and beg him to accept of them".18 An important point to notice here is that the
religious order which the slave might have joined did not matter.

No doubt, advantage was taken by many people of this
attitude toward the ascetics.The
rulers themselves perhaps took unfair advantage of this general reverence for
the ascetics.They used to send spies
to the territories of their hostile neighbors in the guise of ascetics.Common people were aware of these
deceptions, and if one or two unknown persons garbed as ascetics were seen in
any village they were sometimes suspected to be spies.Mahavira in his pre-kevalin days
traveled about the country with Makkhali Goshala for six or seven years.Twice they were suspected to be spies and
harassed by the villagers. In fact, once they were thrown into a well, but were
rescued when they were identified by some female followers of Parshva.19

Another important development that was taking place in
eastern India at the time was that the Brahmans were trying to establish their
supremacy over the other classes.This
Kshatriyas of the area were not prepared to concede.The Ambattha Sutta20 describes the conversation Buddha
had with a Brahman named Ambattha.At that time the Buddha was staying in the Koshala country.This was perhaps the western limit of his
missionary work.

When Ambattha came in the presence of the Buddha he
behaved in an off-hand manner.The
Buddha pulled him up for being discourteous to an aged teacher.Ambattha then complained, "That,
Gautama is neither fitting nor is it seemly that the Sakhyas (who were
Kshatriyas) menials as they are, mere menials, should neither venerate, nor
value, nor esteem, nor give gifts to, nor pay honors to Brahmans."

The Buddha explained to him that these things could not
be claimed by a person merely because he was born a Brahman. Such veneration
was payable only to a recluse or to a Brahman who had obtained the
supreme perfection in wisdom and conduct.

Interestingly enough the JainSutras also
give instances where Brahmans claimed superiority by virtue of their
birth alone.This was strongly
repudiated by the followers of Mahavira.We have in the SutraKritanga the following dialogue:

A Vedic Priest:"Those who always feed two thousand holy (Snatak)
mendicants, acquire great merit and become Gods.This is the teaching of the Veda".

Ardraka:"He who always feeds tow thousand holy cats (i.e. Brahmans),
will have to endure great pains in hell, being surrounded by hungry
beasts".21

It appears from the above that the Brahmans could
not claim any superior position by virtue of their birth alone, in eastern
India.A Brahman had to earn the
position by cultivating the same qualities as an ascetic.

Most of these ascetics practiced severe austerities. Many
of them lived completely nude throughout the year. Naturally some people
wondered why these ascetics led such difficult lives.This question occurred to king Ajatashatru of Magadh
also.He thought that all persons
whether horsemen or charioteers, washer-men or weavers, basket-makers or
potters, enjoyed in this very world the visible fruits of their crafts.But was there any such immediate fruit,
visible in this very world, of the life of a recluse?When the question first came to the king's mind his ministers
advised him to consult some famous recluse who were also heads of their orders
and teachers of their schools (of philosophy).The following six religious teachers were named by the ministers of
Ajatashatru:

1.Purana Kassapa,

2.Makkhali Goshala,

3.Ajita Keshakamblai,

4.Pakudha kachchayana,

5.Sangyo Belathhiputta, and

6.Nigantha Nataputta.

The answers that these teachers gave were not always to
the point.They, in fact, took the
opportunity to expound their own views on life and human destiny instead of
answering the king directly.Another
important point to notice is that none of them touched on God, Soul or other
intangible subjects.Only one among
these six, Sanjaya Belathiputta recognized the possibility of such things, but
he was a complete agnostic and his answer to the question of Ajatashatru
was:"If you ask me whether there
is another world, well, if I thought there were, I would say so.But don't say so.And I don't deny it.And
I don't say there neither is, nor is not another world.And if you ask me about the beings produced
by chance; or whether there is any fruit, any result, of good or bad actions;
or whether a man who won the truth continues or not after death to each or any
of these questions do I give the same reply."

A teacher who would not answer any question whatsoever
would not have many followers.If
Sanjaya Belathiputta left behind him any religious group, it did not last
long.In fact in the history of the
Indian Philosophy there have not been many agnostics.But during his life time Sanjaya appears to have been quite
influential.In the Mahavagga I, 23 and
24, we are told that Sariputta and Mogglayana, the most distinguished pair of
the Buddha's disciples had, before their conversion to Buddhism been adherents
of Sanjaya and had brought over to the Buddha 250 disciples of their former
teacher.22

There is, however, an interesting question.Did Sanjay's agnosticism influence the
conception of Syadvada or the SatabhangiNyava of the Jains?Jacobi said in this connection, "Thus,
I think, that in opposition to the Agnosticism of Sanjaya, Mahavira has
established his Syadvada.For as
the Ajnyanavada declares that of a thing beyond our experience the existence or
non-existence or simultaneous existence and non-existence, can neither be
affirmed nor denied, so in a similar way, but one leading to the contrary
results, the Syadvada declares that you can affirm the existence of a
thing from one point of view Syadasti, deny it from another Syadnasti
and affirm both existence and non-existence with reference to it at different
times Syad-asti-nasti.If you
should think of affirming existence and non-existence at the same time from the
same point of view, you must say that the thing cannot be spoken of Syadavaktavya.Similarly, under
certain circumstances, the affirmation of existence is not possible of
non-existence Syadnastyavaktavyah and also of both Syadastinastyavaktavyah.

"This is the famous SaptabhangiNyaya of the Jains. World and philosopher have enunciated such
truisms.The subtle discussion of the
Agnostics had probably bewildered and misled many of the contemporaries.Consequently Syadvada must have appeared to
them as a happy way leading out of the adversity of the Ajnyanavada.It was the weapon with which the Agnostics
assailed the enemy, turned against them. Who knows how many of their followers
went over to Mahavira's creed convinced of the truth of the Saptabhangi Nyaya".23

Ajita Keshakambali was a materialist.He used to put on a garment of hair.Hence his name Keshankambali.His answer to Ajatashatru was, "There
is no such thing, O king, as alms or sacrifice or offering.There is neither fruit nor result or good or
evil deeds.There is no such thing as
this world or the next........Fools
and wise alike are cut-off, annihilated, and after death they are not".

Ajita, of the garment of hair, had a successor called
Payasi, who championed Ajita's views.But these people who were usually called Charvakas did not
establish any schools. There were, however, individual Charvakas from time to
time in all periods of Indian history.They also appear in the epics.For instance we have a Charvakas called Jabali in the
Ramyan.He had accompanied Bharat to request
Ram to come back to Ayodhya after Dasharath's death.As was usual with all Charvakas he was not tactful and said
something, which was against the conventional wisdom.Jabali had told Ram that it was foolish to suffer the troubles of
banishment just to honor the words of a dead father.Again, in the Mahabharat a Charvakas told Yudhisthir her that he
was a sinner for he had killed most of his kinsmen.25

Three of the six teachers, viz.Purana Kassapa, Pakudha Kachchayana and Makkhali Goshala gave
answers, which were not very dissimilar.Makkhali Goshala later became leader of the Ajivika sect.He answered the king Ajatashatru,"There is, O king, no cause either
ultimate or remote, for the depravity of being; they become depraved without
reason and without cause.The
attainment of any given condition, of any character, does not depend either on
own acts, or on the acts of another or on human effort.There is no such thing as power or energy or
human strength or human vigor........"

It will be seen that the views of Makkhali Goshala, the
leader of the Ajivikas, were a sort of determinism (Niyativada).The Ajivikas sect survived for many
centuries. Ashok mentions them in one of his pillar edicts.Ashoka's successor Dasrath dedicated a cave
in the Barabar hills (in Gaya district) to this sect.It is likely that the remnants of the Ajivikas were absorbed in
the Digambaras Jain community.In fact, Hoernle in his famous essays on the Ajivikas in Encyclopedia of
Religion and Ethics had suggested that one group of the Ajivikas had broken
away from Makkhali Goshala when he had abused Mahavira.This breakaway group according to Hoernle
had formed the nucleus of the Digambara sect of the Jains.

The answer given by Nigantha Nataputta to King
Ajatashatru was "A Nigantha (a man free form bonds), O king is restrained
with a fourfold restraint.He lives
restrained as regards all water, restrained as regards all evil; all evil has
he washed away; and he lives suffused with the sense of evil held at bay.Such is his fourfold self-restraint. And
since he is thus tied with this fourfold bond, therefore is he, the Nigantha
(free from bonds), called Gatatto (whose heart has gone; that is, to the
summit, to the attainment of his aim), Yattatto (whose heart is kept
down; that is under command) and Hitatlo (whose heart is fixed).27

Nigantha Nataputta has been identified with Mahavira, the
JainTirthankara.There
is, however, little in the above reported statement of Nigantha Nataputta which
can be exclusively related to the Jain principle.The only possible one is the first
"restraint" mentioned above viz., the restraint as regard water. This
is perhaps the well-known Jain rule not to drink cold water on the
ground that there are "souls" in it.There is no doubt that the exact words of Nigantha Nataputta have been
greatly distorted as the words passed from one person to another.The Buddhists also would not be too careful
to report the beliefs of a rival sect. They might have deliberately distorted
the words of the leader of the rival sect.At the same time it has to be remembered that the Jains claim
Ajatashatru as quite friendly towards Mahavira.He himself would be expected to report faithfully Nataputta's
words in his talks with the Buddha.

In fact, on closer examination it will be found that the
answers given by Makkhali Goshala and Nigantha Nataputta, however enigmatic
they might appear, bring out the essential philosophic difference between the
views of the Ajivikas and the Jains.The Ajivikas deny the existence of free-will, for as Goshala said,
"The attainment of any given condition... Does not depend... on nay human
effort". Nigantha Nataputta, on the other hand, stresses again and again
that the restraints Nigantha practices are self- imposed.In other words, the asceticism of a Nigantha
is of his own free will.

We thus find that in Magadh in the sixth century
BC ., two important things were present in the religious atmosphere.The first is that the most venerated persons
in the area were the ascetics.It did
not matter to what order or sect the ascetics belonged.All were equally respected. Secondly, the
ascetics were not practicing their austerities to gain paradise or any other
pleasurable objects.All that they
gained in this word was the respect that the people from the king downward paid
them.

Asceticism, however, was
meant for the wholly committed persons.An ordinary man had to take recourse to the worship of Gods and
Goddesses for satisfying his religious instinct. The most popular deities in Magadh
at that time were the Yakshas.Both Buddhist and Jain canonical works mention the existence of
temples of Yakshas both of the male and female species.In fact according to the ancient Jain
works there were temples dedicated to various Yakshas in every town in
northern India.A temple of Bahuputta
is mentioned in the Buddhist as well as the Jain texts.This temple had been, according to the Bhagavati-Sutra,
the fifth Anga of the Jains, visited by Mahavira himself.

Now, Yakshas were non-Vedic Gods.The term Yakshas, no doubt occurs six
times in the Rigveda, but its meaning there is not clear.The Vedic Index28 says that
according to Ludwig it means a feast or a holy practice.The term also occurs several times in the
Atharva-Veda.Whitney had translated
the term as monster or prodigy.In any
case the Vedic people never thought of the Yakshas as Gods.

In the later history of Jainism the Yakshas became
attendants of the Tirthankara.

The traditional Jain belief is that Jainism had
existed in the same form from the hoary past, and Mahavira the 24th Tirthankara
had carried on the religion exactly as it existed in his time, without any
change.It would appear from the Jain
canonical works themselves, that the traditional answer is not wholly
correct.It is true that at the time of
Mahavira there was an older religion, whose ideals and methods were almost the
same as that of Mahavira's and which even his followers called the older
section of the Church, but at the same time it is also true that Mahavira did
introduce two important changes in the practices of this older section.

The people who are known as Jains to-day were
called Nigganthas in the Svetamber canonical works.29Along with the Nigganthas there was in
Magadh another sect who were known as the followers of Parshva.In fact the parents of Mahavira were
themselves followers of Parshva.The
Buddhist describe both the groups as the Niganthas, but the Jain
canonical works never say that the Nigganthas and the followers of Parshva were
the same people.There were two
important differences between the two.The monks among the followers of Parshva could wear clothes, and they
had to observe only four vows against the five, which the followers of Mahavira
had to observe.At the same time they
were not hostile to each other; they were pursuing, as they said, the same ends.Later, the followers of Parshva joined
Mahavira's group.The Uttaradhayana
(23rd lecture) describes how Gautama, the most important disciple of Mahavira's
converted Keshi the leader of the followers of Parshva to Mahavira's sect;

1. There was a Jina,
Parshva by name, an Arhat worshipped by the people, who was enlightened
and omniscient, a prophet of the law and a Jina.

2. And, there was a famous
disciple of this Light of the World the young Shaman Keshi, who had completely
mastered the sciences and right conduct.

5. Now at that time there
lived the Prophet of the Law, the Jina, who in the whole world is known
as the venerable Vardhamana. ................................

6. And there was a famous
disciple of this Light of the World the venerable Gautama by name that had
completely mastered the sciences and right conduct.

10. The pupils of both, who
controlled themselves and practiced austerities, who possessed virtues, and
protected their self, made the following reflection.

11. Is our Law (i.e., the law
of Parshva) the right one, or is the other Law (the Law of Mahavira) the right
one?Are our conduct and doctrines
right or the other?

12. The Law as taught by the
great sage Parshva, which recognizes but four vows, or the Law taught by
Vardhamana which enjoins five vows?

13. The Law that forbids
clothes (for a monk) or that which (allows) an under and an upper garment?Both pursuing the same end, what has caused
the difference?

14. Knowing the thoughts of
their pupils both Keshi and Gautama made up their minds to meet each other.

15. Gautama, knowing what is
proper and what is due to the older section (of the Church), went to Tinduka
Park accompanied by the crowd, his pupils.

The Uttaradhayana Sutra then describes the long
but friendly discussions that took place between Keshi and Gautama.Ultimately Gautama's arguments prevailed and
Keshi with his followers accepted Mahavira's teachings.Thus the older section of the Church (vide
verse 15 above) was absorbed in the section of Mahavira.

In a similar manner the Sutrakritanga30,
describes how Gautama converted Udaka, another follower of Parshva to the creed
of Mahavira:

40. Then the Venerable
Gautama went with Udaka, the son of Pedhala, to the Venerable Ascetic Mahavira.
Then Udaka, the son of Pedhala solemnly circumambulated the Venerable Ascetic
Mahavira three times from the left to right, and having done so he praised and
worshipped him, and then spoke thus: `I desire, Reverend Sir, in your presence
to pass from the creed which enjoins four vows and the Pratikramna.May it please, beloved of the Gods, do not
deny me'

Thus even though the Jain canonical works do not
explicitly mention the term `Niggantha' for them, the followers of Parshva
appear to be the older section of the Niggantha Church.

Jacobi, however, puts forward
a view that the followers of Parshva and not the followers of Mahavira were the
original Nigantha mentioned by the Buddhists.His argument is as follows:

"In the MajjnimaNikaya
36 (a Pali text), one Shachchaka, the son of a Nigantha explains the meaning of
the term Kayabhavana, bodily purity, by referring to the conduct of the Achelakas.These Achelakas used to remain stark naked
Sabbaso apatichchanna while the Nigantha used some sort of
cover.Many of the practices of the Achelakas
were identically the same as those observed by the Jains."And still Sachchaka does not
quote the Nigantha as a standard or bodily purity, though he was the son of a
Nigantha, and therefore, must have known their religious practices.This curious fact may most easily be
accounted for by assuming that the original Niganthas, of whom the Buddhist
records usually speak, were not the section of the Church, which submitted to
the more rigid rules of Mahavira but those followers of Parshva, who, without
forming a hostile party, yet continued to retain within the united Church some
particular usage's of the old one".

Jacobi's arguments are not very convincing.In any case it does not explain why, if
Mahavira was not a Nigantha according to the Buddhists, their records,
continued to call him Nigantha Nataputta till his death.It would appear that so for as the Buddhists
were concerned they called both the sections of the Jain Church, the
followers of Parshva, as well as the followers of Mahavira, Niganthas.

We may conclude, therefore, that at the time of the
Buddha there existed in Magadh a religious sect known to the Buddhists
as the Niganthas.The monks of the older
section of this sect observed four vows of asceticism and wore clothes.Mahavira reformed this religion by making
two changes: he introduced a fifth vow, and forbade the use of clothes by the
monks.All the members of the older
section accepted these reforms and thereafter there was only one Jain
Church.

7. A late hymn in the Rigveda
(X, 136) mentions the existence of munis. The meaning of the hymn is not
clear. Perhaps a Muni was a person with supernatural power.

8. Sacred Books of the East,
Vol. XV, p. 163

9. The Brihadarnyka Upanishad
(II.I.I) also mentions an Ajatashatru, contemporary with Janak but he belonged
to Kashi, not Magadh.

10. Kosala and Videh do not
appear in the early Vedic literature. They are first mentioned in the Satapatha
Brahman (I.4.1.10ff) which relates the story of the spread of the Aryan
(Vedic?) culture. Vedic Age p. 258

19. These incidents are given
in Jinadasa's Churni, a 7th century commentary on the Avashayaka
Sutta. Thought a late work, the description appears to be reliable.

20. The sacred Books of the
Buddhist. Vol. II, pp.108-136

21. Sacred Books of the East,
Vol. xiv, p.417

22. Jacobi in the Sacred
Books of the East Vol. XLV, xxix

23. Jacobi in the Sacred
Books of the East Vol. XLV, pp. xxvii- xxxiii

24. History of Philosophy,
Eastern and Western. VolI., p.133

25. Mahabharat, Shanty P.
ch.38

26. This point has been examined
in greater detail in chapter VII.

27. Rys Davids, the
translators of the above passage has suggested that the series of riddles in
this difficult passage were probably intended to be ironical imitation of the
Niganthas's way of talking. (Sacred books of the Buddhists Vol. II, p.75 fn).

28. Macdonell and Keith,
Vedic Index, Vol. II, p. 182

29. For instance, in the AcarangaSutra in Sacred Books of the East Vol. XXII, p.28. In JainPrakrit
the word is written as Niggantha and in Pali , as Nigantha.
In Sanskrit form is Nirgrantha.

30. Sacred Books of the East,
: Vol. XLV, pp. 419-35

31. Ibid., Vol. XLV, pp.
xxx-xxxi

32. Ibid., Vol. XLV, pp.
419-35

33. Ibid., pp. xxx- xxxii

Legendary History

In the Jain conception, the world has neither
beginning in time nor any end.The
world and the Jain Church exist eternally.The Jains liken time to a wheel with twelve spokes.The Wheel is going round and round since
time began and will go on doing so for all time.At any moment half the wheel is descending.The descending half of the wheel is called Avasarpini,
and the ascending half is called Utsarpini.We are living in the Avasarpini half
or the descending half of the Time Wheel when the human life and manners are
becoming worse year by year.Each of
these halves is divided in to Aras (spokes) or Ages.The Aras in the Avasarpini are
the following:

Name of the
AgeDuration

1.Susama SusamaFour crorecroreSagaropama
year

2.SusamaThree
crore croreSagaropama years

3.Susama DusamaTwo
crore croreSagaropama years

4.Dusama susamaOne
crore croreSagaropama years

less 42,000 ordinary years

5.Dusama21,000 ordinary years

6.Dusama Dusama21,000
ordinary years.

Sagaropama or
"comparable to ocean" is a number too large to express in words.

The same Ages occur in the Utsarpini period but in
the reverse order.

In the first Age, in the Susama susama Age, man
lived Three palyas or palyopamas a long period not to be
expressed in a definite number of years (one crore-crone palyas make one
"comparable to ocean years). The Nirvana of Rishabha the first Tirthankara
occurred 3 years and 8 1/2 months before the end of the third Age.The other 23 Tirthankara were born in
the fourth age.Mahavira the last of
the Tirthankara died 3 years and 8 1/2 months before the beginning of
the fifth age which began in 527 BC We are thus living in the fifth, that is,
the Dusama Age.

The mythical history of Jainism starts from a period near
about the end of the third Age, i.e., the SusamaDusama Age.In this period the first of the sixty-three
supermen of the Jain mythology, Rishabhanatha, appeared.The other sixty-two supermen appeared in the
fourth, i.e., Dusama-susama Age. The Svetambaras call these
supermen Shalakapursha, while the Digambaras call them Lakshana-purusha.1Mahavira was the last of the
sixty-three supermen.

Both the Svetambaras and the Digambaras
have written a number of works giving the lives2 of these
sixty-three persons.One of the most
famous of these works is the Trishashti- shalakapurusha- charitraby Hemachandra.Generally
speaking, there is not much difference in the versions of the lives given by
the two sects.In fact the notable differences
occur in the case of the two Tirthankara Malli and Mahavira only.In all other cases the two sects are in
agreement about the mythology of their religion.

The sixty-three supermen
were the following:

Shvetambara namesDigambara names

ThirhankarasTirthankara24

CakravartinsCakravartins12

BaladevasBaladevas09

VasudevasNrayanas09

PrativasudevasPratinarayanas09

------63

In addition to these sixty-three supermen there were some
kulagaras or legislators.They
all arrived in the third Age.The first
Tirthankara Rishabha was also the last of the kulagaras.The kulagaras were the persons who
first introduced punishment in the world.These, however, consisted in not more than admonition, warning and
reprimands hakkara, makkara and dhikkara.3A kulagara was something like Manu,
the legislator of the Hindus.

Among the Baladevas and Vasudevas, the most interesting
are Balaram and Krishna (Kanha in Prakrit). They appeared at the time of Nemi,
the 22nd Tirthankara.In fact
Krishna was Nemi's cousin, We get here the Jain version of the
Mahabharat The Story of the Kauravas and Pandavas and the descendants of
Krishna and Balaram is described.The
Kauravas and Pandavas are converted to the Jain religions. Finally the
Pandavas also become ascetics and like Nemi, attain Nirvana.4One interesting point is that the main
battle here is not the one described in the Hindu Mahabharat.Krishna, the Vasudeva, fights a battle with
Jarasandha, the Prativasudeva, and kills him. This is the main battle in the Jain version.In this battle between Krishna and
Jarasandha, the Pandavas take the side of Jarasandha.In fact, the main story in this Jain version is the life
of Krishna, and this is nearly the same here as given in the Bhagavati
Purana of the Hindus.Even otherwise
the Krishna is the only Vasudeva who plays some part in the Jain
canonical works- Antakriddasah and JnatadharmaKatha.

The Jain version of the Ramyan is given in Padmacaritras
or Padma - Puranas.Padma
is actually the Jain name of Ram and his story in the Jain
version differs in many particulars from that of Valmiki.

Hemachandra in this Trishashti-shalakapurusha- charitra
gives the legend of Ram in detail.According to him, Dasharath, king of Saketa had four queens: Aparajita,
Sumitra, Suprabha ad Kaikeyi.These
four queens had four sons.Aparajita's
son was Padma, and he became known by the same name of Ram also. Sumitra'sson was Narayana: he became to be known by
another name, Lakshmana.Kaikeyi's son
was Bharata and Suprabha's son was Shatrughna.

Sita was the daughter of Janak. She had a twin brother
Bhamandala who was kidnapped while still an infant.Once Janak was attacked by barbarians. Ram was sent to help
Janak, and he easily repulsed the enemies.Janak was delighted and wanted Ram to marry his daughter Sita.

Dasharath had married Kaikeyi in a svayanvara festival
where she had selected him as her husband out of the many kings who had
attended the festival.The other kings
who were rejected attacked Dasharath.In the battle that ensued, Kaikeyi had acted as the charioteer of
Dasharath. She did her job so skillfully that Dasharath had promised her any
boon that she desired.She had said
that she would ask for her boon on a suitable occasion.

When Dasharath became old he wanted to abdicate and
become a beggar.When Kaikeyi heard
this she demanded her boon, and this was that her son Bharata should take over
the kingdom as Dasharath's successor.Ram readily agreed to this proposal but said that if he stayed on in the
capital, Bharata would not accept the throne.He therefore thought that he should leave the capital and live in the
forest. Sita and Lakshmana accompanied him.The rest of the legend is more or less the same as in Valmiki's RamyanThere is, however, an important
difference.It is Lakshmana and not Ram
who actually kills Ravana.In the Jain
system therefore it is Lakshman who is Vasudeva, Ram is Baladev, and Ravana is
Prativasudeva.

There is another and perhaps an older version of the Jain
Ramyan.This version is given in the
14th Chapter of Sanghadasa'a Vasudevahindi and also in the Uttarapurana of
Gunabhadracarya.This version is not
popular and is in fact not known to the Svetambaras at all.The story in brief is as follows: Dasharath
was a king of Varanasi.Ram was his son
by his queen Subala, and Lakshman by Kaikeyi.Sita was born to Mandodari, wife of Ravana, but since there was a prophecy
that she would be the cause of her father's death, Ravana had sent her through
a servant to be buried alive in Mithila.She was accidentally discovered by the king Janak when was plowing the
field, and brought up as his daughter. When Sita grew up, Janak performed a yajna
where Ram and lakshman were invited.Janak was impressed by Ram's personality and he gave his daughter Sita
to him in marriage. Ravana had not been invited to this yajna, and when
he heard that Sita was a beautiful girl, he decided to abduct her. There is no
mention in this version of the Ramyan of the exile of Ram.Ravana in fact abducts Sita from Citrakuta
near Varanasi. Ram recovers her by killing Ravana in Lanka. Therefore Ram and
Lakshman come home and rule over their kingdom.

All the Chakravartins have more or less similar
careers. Their lives are spent in obtaining the fourteen imperial crown
treasures or jewels. After long reigns, they perform the act of purging known
as apurva-karma obtain kevala knowledge and enter Nirvana.The first of the Chakravartins was
Bharata, son of the first Tirthankara Rishabha.

Rishabha's name occurs in the Hindu Visnu-purana
and Bhagavat Purana also.It is
stated there that the emperor Rishabha handed over his empire to his son
Bharata and went to the forest where he practiced severe penance and died.He was nude at the time of his death.(This suggests that the Purana story might
have come originally from the Jain sources) From the time Rishabha gave
away his empire to his son Bharatta, they started calling this country Bharata-
Varsa.Formerly this country was called
Himavarsa.Name of no other Tirthankara
is mentioned in the Hindu religious literature.

The detailed lives of the twenty four Tirthankara
were given in the various Caritras and Puranas written in the
later part of the first millennium AD the earlier books such as the KelpSutra of the Svetambaras give little details about most of them.
In fact the Kalpa Sutra gives some particulars only about the lives of
Parshva, Arishtanemi and Rishabha in a stereotyped manner.It gives the life of Mahavira in some
detail, and so far as the other twenty Tirthankara were concerned,
mentions only the periods when they appeared.

There is some uniformity in the lives of the Tirthankaras.All of them were born of Kshatriya mothers
and lived princely lives before they renounced the world, and nearly all of
them attained Nirvana in the Sammeta mountain (Parasnatha) in
Bihar.There were only four exceptions
in regard to the place of Nirvana.The place of Nirvana of the following four Tirthankaras
were as below:

1.Rishabha in Kailasa

12. Vasupujja in Champa

22. Arishtanemi on the Girnar
Hills

24. Mahavira in Pava

The twenty-third Tirthankara Parshvanatha is said
to have died 250 years before Mahavira, while Parshva's predecessor Arishtanemi
is said to have died 84,000 years before Mahavira's Nirvana.Naminatha died 5,00,000 years before
Arishtanemi and Munisuvrata 1,00,000 year before Naminatha.The intervals go on lengthening until they
reach astronomical periods.

It thus goes without saying that all the Tirthankaras,
except Parshva and Mahavira are mythical figures.We thus need not discuss their lives given in the various Puranas
and Charitras.It will, however, be
clear from what has been stated above that the Jains have a philosophy
of history (i.e. the theory of the wheel of time) and this is distinct from the
philosophy of history of any other people. Also the Jains throughout the
last fifteen hundred years or so, have taken great delight in writings about
the history of their Church up to Mahavira.In fact the Digambaras have practically ignored the history of
their church after Mahavira.Except for
some pattavalis, which gives the names of their successive Patriarchs,
the Digambaras section of the Church has no other history after
Mahavira.For Jain sources of
the history of the Church after Mahavira we have therefore to depend on the
Svetambaras works only.

7. The term "Aristameni",
which occurs sometimes in the Vedic literature, for instance, in Rigveda
X. 178.1, is not the name of any person.

Life of Parshva

Parshva was the twenty-third Tirthankara of the Jains.His historicity is sought to be established
by the fact that at the time of Mahavira there were a number of people who were
followers of his teaching.In fact the
parents of Mahavira himself were followers of Parshva.In Mahavira's time the leader of this sect,
which was called Miganthas by the Buddhists, was Keshi.

The Jain canonical books do not mention much about
the life of Parshva.A short account of
his life appears in the Kalpa-Sutra of Bhadrabahu.Kalpa Sutra was written perhaps in
the 4th or 5th century AD. In the last paragraph of this account it is
mentioned that since the time the Arhat Parshva died twelve centuries
has elapsed, and of the thirteenth century that was the thirtieth year.Similarly in the case of Mahavira the Kalpa
Sutra mentions that since the time of his death nine centuries has elapsed,
and of the tenth century that was the eightieth year.From this we gather that Parshva died 250 years before Mahavira
and thus perhaps belonged to the 9th century BC

Apart from this, all the other events in the life of
Parshva are written in the stereotype manner in which the Jains describe
the lives of all their Tirthankaras.For instance, it is said that the five most important moments of
Parshva's life happened when the moon was in conjunction with the asterism
Vishakha.These five events are his
conception in the womb of his mother, his birth, his renunciation of the world,
his obtaining of supreme knowledge and his death.

Parshva according to the Kalpa Sutra was the son
of king Ashvasena of Varanasi.His
mother's name was Vama.Parshva lived
as a householder for thirty years.He
renounced the world at the age of thirty and then practiced severe asceticism
for eighty-three days.On the
eighty-fourth day, he became a Kevalin, i.e. obtained supreme knowledge.
Thereafter he built up a large community of followers both shramnas and
householders male as well as female.He
died at the age of 100 at Sammeta Sikhara (Parsanath in Bihar).

REFERENCES:

1. Sacred Books of the East
Vol. XXII, pp. 271-272

Life of Vardhamana Mahavira

Vardhamana Mahavira, the twenty-fourth and last Tirthankaras
of the Jains is the most important figure in the history of
Jainism.It was he who consolidated the
Jain Church and laid such a firm foundation for it that it has existed
almost unchanged for more than twenty-five centuries.As already mentioned, his name, Nigantha Nataputta, occurs in the
early Buddhist records.Since these
sources are independent, they establish the historicity of Mahavira. The
Buddhist records do not give any details about the life of Mahavira, except to
state that he was a leader of the Nigantha sect.The Buddhist also record the time of his death.

The Jain sources also do not give any particulars
about his life as a teacher.The events
before his birth, such as the dreams his mother had when he was conceived are
described in great detail, but few details are given about him after he was
born.At the age of thirty Mahavira
became an ascetic, and wandered about for twelve years.But of Mahavira's life as a teacher for
nearly thirty years until his death at the age of 72, the sources are reticent.

The life of Mahavira as we can gather from the
Svetambaras sources is as follows:

Mahavira was Kshatriya of the Jnatri clan and a
native of the (Kshatriya) Kundagram, a suburb of the town of Vaishali
(near Patna).He was the second son of
Siddhartha and Trishala, a highly connected lady.In fact Trishala was the sister1 of king Chetaka of
Vaishali whose daughter Chellana was married to Shranik Bimbisara king of Magadh.
Mahavira's family tree can be drawn up as follows.2

Suparshva----SiddharthaTrishala or----CetakaSubhadra

Videhadattaking of Vaishali

CellanaBimbisara

King of

Magadha

Kunika or Ajatashatru

Udayin

Founder
of Pataliputra

NandivardhanaSudarshan

VARDHAMAN married to YASHODA

Anojia or Priyadarshana married to Jamali

Sheshavati

The Svetambaras say that the soul of this Tirthankara
had first descended into the womb of the Brahman Devananda. There after
his fetus had been, by the order of Shakra (Indra) removed thence to the womb
of Trishala who actually gave birth to Mahavira.One may rightly ask how people came to know of this incident of
the transfer of the fetus. According to the Svetambaras it was Mahavira
himself who revealed this to his disciples when Devananda once came to see
him.This is how it is described in the
Bhagavati Sutra.

(The Brahman Rishabhadatta and his wife Devananda went on
pilgrimage to Mahavira).Then milk began
to flow from the breast of Brahman woman Devananda, her eyes filled with
tears, her arms swelled inside her bangles, her jacket stretched, the hairs of
her body stood erect, as when a Kadamba unfolds itself in response to a
shower of rain; thus she gazed at the holy monk Mahavira without averting her
eyes."Why master, " said the
venerable Gautam to the holy monk Mahavira, "does the Brahman woman
gaze... (Thus).... without averting her eyes?" "Hear, Gautama"
Said Mahavira, "The Brahman Woman Devananda is my mother, I am the
son of the Brahman woman Devananda.That is why the Brahman woman Devananda gazes at me with tender
love, the cause of which is that I first originated in her."3

All the five important events in the life of Mahavira,
his conception, birth, renunciation of home life, attainment of supreme
knowledge, and death occurred when the moon was in conjunction with the
asterism Uttaraphalguni.His
parents who were pious Jains (i.e. worshippers of Parshva4)
gave him the name Vardhamana.(Vira or
Mahavira is an epithet used as a name).He married Yashoda and by her had a daughter Anojja (also known as
Priyadarshana).His parents died when
he was 30 years old; and his elder brother Nandivardhana succeeded of his
father in whatever position he had held.With the permission of his brother and other authorities, he carried out
along cherished resolve and became monk with the usual Jain rites.Then followed 12 years of self-mortification.
Mahavira wandered about as a mendicant friar bearing all kinds of hardships;
after the first 13 months he even discarded clothes.At the end of this period dedicated to meditation and travels, he
reached the state of omniscience (kevala) corresponding to the bodhi
of the Buddhists.

We have some details of Mahavira's itinerary during the
twelve years that he roamed about in eastern India before he reached the state
of omniscience.Mahavira's life during
these twelve years was spent in great difficulties. Sometimes he was taken for
a thief by the villagers. Sometimes he and Goshala, his companion for six or
seven years were suspected to be spies.The details of his journeys during these twelve years are given in Jinadasa'schurni to the AvashayakaSutra.This churni according to Schubring cannot be dated earlier
than the 7th century AD, but it is generally taken to be more or less reliable.

Within a few days of Mahavira's renunciation of the
world, he went to a village called Kummara.He stood there in meditation for sometime.One cow- herder took him to be a thief and wanted to hit him, and
Mahavira had to leave the village.Mahavira spent the first rainy season of his ascetic life in
Atthiyagama.

During the second year, while Mahavira was crossing the
river Suvannakula, his garment was caught in the thorns on the bank of the
river.From this time onwards he
remained naked.Mahavira passed his
second rainy season in a weaver's shed in Nalanda near Rajagriha.Here Makkhali Goshala met him and became his
companion.The two of them left for
Kollaga.The third rainy season was
passed by Mahavira and Goshala in Champa.

While Mahavira and Goshala were traveling through Coraga
Sannivesa they were suspected to be hostile spies, and thrown into well. They
were however recognized by two female followers of Parshva and were
released.They passed the fourth rainy
season in Pitthichampa.

The next year of their ascetic lives was very difficult
for Goshala and Mahavira.Goshala was
apt to mock at people and therefore, was beaten up by them many times.They also traveled to Ladha (south-west
Bengal) in this year and were ill-treated by the people.They spent the fifth rainy season in
Bhaddiya.

In their travels in this year the two were again taken as
spies at a place called Kuviya Sannivesa.They were later released by the intervention of two sisters called
Viyaya and Pragalbha.At this time
Goshala refused to move in the company of Mahavira, saying that since he was
made to bear insults every now and then he would prefer to travel alone. They
parted company for the time being, but after about six months, when Mahavira
was in Salsisygama, Goshala joined him again. They passed the sixth rainy
season in Bhaddiya.

They passed their seventh rainy season in Alabhiya.In the next year Goshala was again beaten-up
by the people for his mocking behavior.At one time while the two were in Lohaggala, a place described as the
capital of king Jiyasattu, the royal servants took them to be enemy spies and
tied them up.Later they were set free
by Uppala who is said to have arrived there from Atthiyagama.The eighth rainy season was passed by
Mahavira and Goshala in Rayagiha (Rahagriha).

From Rahagriha, Mahavira and Goshala proceeded to Ladha
and traveled in Vajjabhumi and Subbhabhumi where Mahavira had to undergo all
sorts of torture.These have been
described in detail in the Acharonga Sutra.An extract is as follows:

"He traveled in the pathless country of the Ladhas
in Vijjabhumi and Subbhabhumi; he used there, miserable beds and miserable
seats.In Ladha (happened) to him many
dangers. Many natives attacked him.Even in the faithful part of the rough country the dogs bit him, ran at
him.Few people kept off the attacking,
biting dogs.Striking the monk, they
cried "Chhuchchhu" and made the dogs bite him.Such were the inhabitants.Many other mendicants, eating rough food in
Vijjabhumi, and carrying about a strong pole or a stalk(to keep off the dogs),
lived there.Even thus armed they were
bitten by the dogs, torn by the dogs.It is difficult to travel in Ladha".

They passed the ninth rainy season in this country.

In the tenth year while the two were in Siddhatthapura,
Goshala finally severed all connections with Mahavira, and went to Savatthi.Mahavira then traveled alone for the rest of
the year and passed his tenth rainy season in Savatthi.

The exact reason why Mahavira and Goshala parted company
is not clear.Perhaps the reason was
that Goshala did not care much for chastity and this Mahavira did not
like.We have in the Sutrakritanga
a statement which Goshala, made to Ardraka, a disciple of Mahavira."As your Law makes it no sin for
Mahavira to surround himself by a crowd of disciples, so according to our Law
an ascetic, who lives alone and single, commits no sin if he uses cold water,
eats seeds, accepts things prepared for him, and has intercourse with
women."

Goshala spent the last days of his life in Shravasti in
the house of a potter woman called Halahala.

It was perhaps after seeing this sort of behavior that
Mahavira thought it prudent to make the vow of Brahmacharya as one of
the necessary conditions of monk-hood, and added it to the list of the four
vows of Parshva.

The eleventh year of Mahavira was one of his most
difficult years.At Tosali he was taken
for a robber and hit hard.Then he went
to Mosali where he was arrested as a robber but was released by king's
court.When he went back to Tosali the
people tried to hang him but he was rescued by a Tosali Kshatriya.The whole of the year was a period of
torture and humiliation.He passed his
eleventh rainy season in Vesali.

The nest year was of comparative peace.Mahavira passed his twelfth rainy season in
Champa.

From Champa Mahavira reached Jambhiyagama, and then
journeyed to Mendhiyagama.Then he
proceeded to Chammanigama where a cowherd is said to have thrust iron nails
into his ears.Mahavira arrived at
Majjhima Pava in this condition where the nails were removed from his
ears.From here he traveled towards
Jambhiyagama, where on the northern bank of the river Ujjuvaliya, in the farm
of the householder Samaga, under a Shala tree, in the north-east of Veyavatta
shrine, after a period of 12 years 6 months and 15 days, Mahavira attained
omniscience (kevala) on the bright tenth day of Vaishakha.

After Mahavira attained Kevala, a Samavarsana
(religious conference) was held on the bank of the river Ujjuvaliya, but it is
said that the first preaching of Mahavira remained unsuccessful.Then after traversing twelve Yojanas,
Mahavira is said to have returned to Majjhima Pava where the second Samavarsana
was convened in the garden of Mahasena. Here, after a long discussion on
various religious and philosophic points, Mahavira ordained eleven learned Brahmans.7

These eleven Brahmans later became the eleven ganaharas(Ganadhara) of Mahavira.Nine of them died within the life time of
Mahavira and only two of them Indabhui Goyama (Indrabhuti Gautama) and Suhamma
(Sudharman survived him. Schubring remarks: There can be scarcely any doubt
that the other nine ganaharas are fictitious."8In fact in the Jain canonical
books there is scarcely any mention of these nine ganaharas.

Mahavira lived for about 30 years after attaining omniscience
at the age of forty-two.The Jain
rules prescribe that during eight months of the summer and winter seasons a
monk may stay in a village for one night only and in a town for not more than
five nights.During the four months of
the rainy season he should stay at one place.The places where Mahavira spent his forty-two rainy seasons are given in
the KalpaSutra.These
were as follows:

Places of Rainy Season Stay

1.Atthiyaggama
- 1 (The first rainy season)

2.Champa and PitthiChampa-3

3.Vesali and Vaniyagama-12

4.Rayagiha and Nalanda-14

5.Mithila- 6

6.Bhaddiya- 2

7.Alabhiya
- 1

8.Paniyabhumi- 1

9.Savatthi- 1

10. In the town of Pava- 1 (this was his last rainy season.)

in the office the clerk

ofking Hattivala

-------

42

-------

The area which Mahavira covered during his ascetic life of
42 years, e.g. from the time he left home and until his death, was roughly
Bihar, a part of western and northern Bengal and some parts of eastern Uttar
pradesh.Tosali is also mentioned in
some works as a place to which Mahavira went.If this Tosali was in Orissa then Mahavira had gone to that region also.

Most of the early Jain works do not take much
interest in describing the life of Mahavira after he attained omniscience and
became a teacher.9There
are, however, scattered references here and there.The BhagvatiSutra is the only early work giving
comparatively more details of Mahavira's life both before and after he attained
omniscience.The later Jain
writers collected these and other bits of stories about his life and put them
in the works called the "Lives of the sixty-three Supermen."Among these works the most well known is the
Trishashti-Shalakapurushacharitra
of Hemachandra.10Mahavira's
life is given in the tenth book of this work.Since Hemachandra was one of the most learned persons among the Jains,
it may be presumed that he has given in his work, only those parts of the myths
and legends connected with Mahavira's life which he found most believable.For mahavira's life.He had, therefore, filled-up most of his
work with the histories of other important people such as the contemporary
rulers and their spouses.Sometimes it
is difficult to find relevance of these stories to the life of Mahavira).

Shortly after attaining omniscience Mahavira started
wandering in villages, mines, cities, etc., to give help to souls capable of
emancipation.Many people would come to
see him.Among the first people to him
were his natural parents Rishabhadatta and Devananda.It was during this visit that Mahavira recognized Devananda as
his mother in whose womb he had first descended from heaven and stayed on for
eighty-two days before being transferred to Trishala's womb.

Among
the early visitors to Mahavira during his wandering were Jamali, his sister's
son as well as his son-in- law.Jamali met
Mahavirawhile the latter was in
Kshatriya- Kundagram, the village where Mahavira was born. Priyadarshana,
Mahavira's daughter, and wife of Jamali had heard a sermon and obtained his
parents consent; he took the vow together with five hundred of the warrior
caste. Priyadarshana, Jamali's wife, the Blessed one's daughter, together with
one thousand women took initiation under the Master.Then the Blessed one went elsewhere to wander, and Jamali
followed him with the warrior-sadhus.In the course of time Jamali, as he wandered, learned the eleven Angas
and the Lord made him the head of his fellow-mendicants.He practiced penance’s, two-day fasts, etc. Priyadarshana
followed Candana.

This
Candana was the daughter of Dadhivahana, king of Champa.He had been defeated in a battle and his
daughter Candana had been enslaved.Once Candana had given half the food that had been given to her while
she was nearly starving to Mahavira as alms.At that time Mahavira had still not attained omniscience.He had taken a vow that he would fast for a
long time.It was predicted by the
gods, "This girl, who has her last body (before emancipation), averse to
desire for worldly pleasures, will be the first female disciple, when
Mahavira's omniscience had developed".

One
day Jamali bowed to the Lord and said: "With your permission I and my
group shall proceed with unrestricted wanderings."The Blessed One knew by the eye of knowledge
that evil would result, and gave no answer to Jamali asking again and
again.With the idea that what is not
forbidden is permitted, Jamali and his group separated from the Lord to wander.

While
thus wandering along with his followers Jamali once fell ill.He wanted to lie down and asked his men to
spread a bed for him.After some time,
he asked them whether the bed was spread or not.They were still spreading the bed and replied that the bed was
spread.When Jamali saw that the bed
had not until then been spread, he got annoyed with his followers.They replied that according to the teachings
of Mahavira "What is being done is done".But now they realized their mistake and knew the truth that
"What is being done is not done".This in fact was the sole point in the schism on which Jamali and his
group separated from Mahavira. Jamali started boasting that he had attained
omniscience.He told Mahavira that he
had become all knowing, all perceiving, an Arhat here on earth.His wife Priyadarshana also joined him in
his heresy.She, however, realized her
mistake by a personal experience.Once
a person had intentionally allowed a spark of fire to drop on her habit, which
caught fire.When she saw that her
habit was burning Priyadarshana said, "Look Dhanka, my habit is burnt by
your carelessness". Dhanks said, "Do not speak falsely, Sadhvi,
for according to your doctrine, it is proper to say such a thing when the whole
habit has been burnt." Being burnt is burnt' the teaching of
Mahavira."Priyadarshana realized
her error in following Jamali's teaching and came back with her followers to her
father.

Jamali,
however, continued with his false doctrine and at last died without confessing
his sin.Jamali's doctrine died with
him.

The
next important episode described by Hemachadra, is the death of Goshala, the
leader of the Ajivikas (Hemachandra spells it Ajivaka).

In
his wanderings Mahavira had come to Shravasti and stopped there in the garden
of one Kosthanka.Goshala had come
there earlier and was staying in Shravasti in the shop of a potter woman called
Halahala.Goshala used to call himself
omniscient. Once while he entered Shravasti for alms, Gautama, one of the chief
disciples of Mahavira heard that Goshala was making these claims.Gautama asked Mahavira whether Goshala was
right in this matter.Mahavira said:
"The son of Mankha, Mankhali, thinking himself a Jina though he is
not a Jina, Goshala is a house of deceit.Initiated by me myself, taught by me, he resorted to wrong belief
about me.He is not omniscient,
Gautama".

When
Goshala heard Mahavira's opinion about him, he was greatly annoyed.When he saw Ananda, another disciple of
Mahavira, he threatened that he had a hot flash with which he would consume an
enemy.He would destroy Mahavira and
his disciples with his flash.When
Ananda reported this to Mahavira, he remarked that Goshala indeed had this
dangerous flash, with which he could consume anybody except the Arhat,
who would only feel some discomfort.That is why Goshala should not be teased.

Ananda
reported this to the people of Shravasti.This made Goshala angrier, and he came and started abusing
Mahavira.Indeed, he was able to kill
two of Mahavira's disciples with his hot flash when they tried to remonstrate.

Mahavira
tried to pacify Goshala, but Mahavir's words made Goshala angrier, and he
discharged his hot flash at Mahavira."Powerless against the Master like a hurricane against a mountain,
it (the flash) circumambulated the Lord, resembling a devotee.From the hot flash there was only warmth in
the Master's body..... The hot flash, as if angry because he had used it for a
crime, alas! Turned and entered Goshala's body forcibly".

"Burned
internally by it, Goshala had recourse to audacity and said arrogantly to the
Blessed Mahavira: "Consumed by my hot flash, you will die at the end of
six months succumbing to a bilious fever, still an ordinary ascetic,
Kashyapa".

"The
Master said: "Goshala, your speech is false, since I, omniscient, shall
wander for sixteen years more.But you suffering
from a bilious fever from your own hot flash, will die at the end of the seven
days.There is no doubt about it".

"The
miserable Goshala, burned by his own hot flash drank wine to allay the great
heat, accepting a bowl of wine. Intoxicated by the wine he sang and danced and
frequently bowed to Halahala (the potter woman), making an anjali.....
He spoke disconnected and contradictory speeches; and he passed the day nursed
by his sorrowful disciples".Thus
he suffered for a week.

At the end of seven days,
Goshala repented, confessed his errors and died.

(The story of Goshala, taken by Hemachandra mostly from the Bhagavati-Sutra
probably gives the history of a serious quarrel between the sects of Ajivikas
led by Goshala and the Nigganthas led by Mahavira.As described later, Hoernle say in it the signs of the beginning
of the Digambara Community).

In
the course of a few days, Mahavira also became weak from dysentery and bilious
fever from the effects of Goshala's hot flash, but he did not use any
medicine.Rumour spread that he would,
as predicted by Goshala, die within six months.His disciples became greatly alarmed, and requested Mahavira to
take some medicine.At last, Mahavira
agreed and said that his disciples should bring that had been cooked by Revati,
a housewife, for the household.

"Sinha
(one of the disciples) went to Revati's house and got the prescribed remedy
which she gave.Immediately delighted
gods made a shower of gold.Lord
Vardhamana made use of the excellent medicine brought by Sinha and at once
regained health, the full moon to the partridge (chakora) of the
congregation.

Mahavira
lived for sixteen years more after this.He wandered about north Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, teaching people
the ethics of his religion.Perhaps
nothing very much noteworthy happened during these years.

Mahavira
died twenty-nine and half years after he had attained omniscience.The death took place in the house of king
Hastipala's scribe in the town of Pava, near Rajagriha. Out of the eleven Ganadharas,
nine had already died.Only
(Indrabhuti) Gautama and Sudharman survived him.A day before his death, Mahavira had sent away Gautama for a day.
Perhaps he had feared that Gautama might be too demonstrative of his
grief.However, Gautama attained
omniscience instantly on the death of Mahavira.He remained in this state for twelve years and on his death
Sudharman attained omniscience.Sudharman was the first leader of the Jain Church after Mahavira,
for Gautama never acted as a teacher.

Svetambaras place the year of the death of Mahavira, which is the
initial point of their era, 470 years before the beginning of the Vikram era,
or in 527 BC.12

On
the death of Mahavira, "The light of knowledge having been extinguished,
all the kings made material lights.From that time among the people also a festival called Dipotsava, takes
place everywhere on that night by making lights".

(Hemachandra
in this last part of his Trishashtishalakapursha- charitra has
covered nearly all the facts known to the Jains about the life of
Mahavira. It is, however, interesting to note that he has not mentioned the
second schism of the Jain Church.This was started y Tissagutta during Mahavira's lifetime, sixteen years
after the latter had attained omniscience).

What
kind of man was Mahavira?We do not
know much about his character from the Jain canon, but some conclusions
can be draw from his behavior and sayings.He must have been a man of strong will power and patience. Otherwise he
could have not withstood the tortures and privations he suffered during the
period of twelve years he was travelling either alone or with Goshala.His constitution must also have been quite
strong.

He
was evidently not of a cheerful disposition, and disliked mirth among his
disciples.We have in the Acharanga-Sutra,
"A Nirgrantha comprehends (and renounces) mirth, he is not mirthful.The Kevalin says: " A Nirgrantha
who is moved by mirth, and is mirthful, might utter a falsehood in his speech."13

He
must have also had charisma and the quality of attracting people.This conclusion can be drawn from the
success he obtained in combining the Nigrantha Church into one, and creating a
religious system, which has lasted almost unchanged these 2500 years.His power of attracting people was a cause
of envies to his one time companion and later his rival Makkhali Goshala who
complained to Ardraka."Listen,
Ardraka, to what (Mahavira) has done.At first he wandered about as a single monk; but now he has surrounded
himself by many monks, and teaches every one of them the Law at length."14

As
Jacobi says, "Mahavira must have been a great man in his own way, and an
eminent leader among his contemporaries; he owed the position of a Tirthakar
because of the sanctity of his life and his success in the propagating of his
creed"15.

The report about Mahavira's
death is also recorded in the Buddhists texts.In fact the report appears at three places. These are Majjhima
Nikaya, Samagama Sutta, 3.14;Digha
Nikaya, Pasadika Sutta 3.6; and Digha Nikaya, ParyayaSutta 3.10. The purport of these records
is as follows:

Chunda
Samanuddesa, a Buddhist monk was passing his rainy season in Pava.At that time the Buddha was dwelling among
the Shakkas at Samagama."Now at
that time Nigantha Nataputta had just departed from life at Pava.After his death the Niganthas were
divided into two groups. They were making quarrels, making strife, falling into
disputes were wounding each other, "You do not know this law of
discipline, I know this law of discipline.....You are having false beliefs, I
am having true beliefs" etc. Thus the Niganthas of the Nataputta were as
if warring with each other.

Chunda
Samanuddesa after passing the rainy season at Pava went and reported the whole
matter to Ananda. Thereupon the venerable Ananda said to him: "Reverend
Chunda, this news is worthy to be presented to the Blessed One.Come let us go to the Lord".

Then,
the venerable Ananda and Chunda Samanuddesa approached the Buddha, and saluted
and sat down at one side and so seated, the venerable Ananda said to the
exalted one: "Lord: this Chunda Samanuddesa says "Nigantha Nataputta
has just departed...."

This
record in the Buddhist text is so vivid, that the obvious inference from it
that the Buddha was living at the time of Mahavira's death ought to be
accepted.The belief among some
scholars, on the other hand, is that it was the Buddha who had died earlier.This later hypothesis is supported among
others by Snhalese Buddhist tradition that the Buddha died in 544 BC Since the Jains
believe that Mahavira died in 527 BC, this would put the year of death on the
Buddha 16 to 17 years earlier than the year of Mahavira's death.Things are, however, not free from
complications.Hemchandra, the
historian of the Jain Church, has written that Chandragupta Maurya
became emperor 155 years after the death of Mahavira.This would bring the years of the death of Mahavira to 468 BC
There are other traditions also about the years of death of Mahavira and the
Buddha.

REFERENCES:

1. The fact that Trishala,
the mother of Mahavira, was a sister of king Chetaka is not mentioned in the
canon. We learn about this only from Avashayakachurni of Jinadasagani
(7th century AD)

2. Sacred Books of the East
Vol. XXII. p. xv

3. Winternitz, op. cit. 443

4. AcarangaSutra
in Sacred Books of the East Vol. XXII, p. 194

5. Sacred Books of the East
Vol. XXII. p.84

6. Sacred Books of the East
Vol. XXII, p.411

7. The account of Mahavira's
travel as given in the Avashakchurni has been summarized above from J.
C. Jain Life in Ancient India, pp. 257-261

8. Schubrihg, op. cit. P. 44

9. There is some similarity
here with the life of the Buddha. The Lalitvistara describes the life of the
Buddha in some detail to the time he attained Buddhahood and traveled to
Sarnath to preach his first sermon. This was when he was 36. For the remaining
44 years of the Buddha’s life we have little connected details.

10. Helen M. Johnson has
translated this work by Hemachandra in six volumes. The Oriental Institute,
Baroda, published the translation. Vol. VI, which is used here extensively, was
published in 1962.

11. That Jamali was
Priyadarshna's husband, is not mentioned in the canon though his name occurs
several times in the canonical texts. The later commentaries however say that
Jamali was the husband of Priyadarshana, daughter of Mahavira.

12. H. Jacobi mentions in his
article on Jainism in the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. VII, that
527 BC was the date given by Shvetambera of Mahavira's Nirvana, while Digambers
place the event 18 years later. This does not seem to be correct. Trilokasara
(shloka 850), a Digambra's work mentions that Mahavira's Nirvana took
place 605 years and 5 months before the shaka king

(AD 78). This gives 527 BC
as the date of Mahavira's Nirvana.
Another Digambera work Tiloypannati gives three dates dates for Mahavira's Nirvana
. Two of them absurdly give old dates, but the third one (sl. 1499) agrees with
Trilokasara.

13. Sacred Books of the
East Vol. XXII, p.205

14. Sutrakritanga in Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XLV, p.409

15. Sacred Books of the East
Vol. XLV, p. xxxii

16. See chapter v

The Jain Church After
Mahavira

The Shvetambara Version

So
far as we know, Jainism was confined, during the first one or two centuries
after Mahavira, within the area in which he had preached the religion.Mahavira's principal disciple Sudhamma
succeeded him as the head of the Church.His name was later Sanskritized to Sudharman.Mahavira is said to have had eleven
principal disciples or Gangdharas.Nine of them had died during the lifetime of Mahavira and only two,
namely Sudharman and Indrabhuti Gautama, are said to have survived him.But apart from Sudharman we know nothing
about the other ten Ganadharas.The historicity of these ten has been questioned.However, it is quite clear that in the
history of Jainism, it is not important to establish the fact that they
existed.These ten Ganadharas have
left no successors, and they did not make any contribution, so far as we know,
to the development of Jainism after Mahavira.

Sudharman
on the other hand was an important figure. We know many of the teachings of
Mahavira in the version in which Sudharman taught them to his principal
disciple Jambusvamin.Many lessons in
the Jain canonical works start with the words of Sudharman: "Now
Jambusvamin...."

Sudharman
survived Mahavira by twenty years.He
is said to have become a Kevalin (omnipotent) twelve years after
Mahavira's Nirvana, and then lived on for eight years more, reaching the
age of 100 at the time of his death.Jambu, his principal disciple, succeeded him to the pontificate. Jambu's
principal disciple Prabhava succeeded him on his death forty-four years later
in 64 AV. Thus, for several generations, the supreme dignity and power of the Jain
Church devolved from teacher to disciple.

It
must be pointed out that the above is the Shvetambara tradition.Some Digambaras maintain, on the
other hand, that the first two successors of Mahavira were Gautama and
Lohacharya, and Jambu had succeeded Lohacharya.Some other Digambaras think that Sudharman succeeded
Gautama and Lohacharya was another name of Sudharman.However, for the history of the Jain Church, we have to
rely on the Shvetambara version.Digambaras have not written any history of the Church and apart
from some pattavalis and inscriptions, we do not know their version of
the story for a few centuries after Mahavira.

The
list of the successors of Mahavira in the pontificate, as known to the Svetambaras,
is given in the Kalpa Sutra in the chapter known as Theravali (or
Sthaviravali), and also in two of their canonical works. The lists of
the patriarchs given in these two Sutras are in agreement with that
given in the Kalpa Sutra up to Mahagiri and Suhastin, the pair of
patriarchs in the eighth generation after Mahavira.At that point, the succession diverges in two lines, one start
from Mahagiri, the other from Suhastin. The first is recorded in Nandi and
Avashyaka Sutras, and the second in the Kalpa Sutra.Both lines are entirely independent of each
other and have no members in common. Almost all those who figure in the ancient
legends (Kathanakas) belong to the line of Suhastin.As far as I am aware there is but one legend
related to a member of the Mahagiri line, viz. Mangu, see Abhidhanarajendra
Kosha, s.v. Mangu".1

Thus,
for all practical purposes, the list given in the Kalpa Sutra is the
only authentic list, so far as the Svetambaras are concerned.The Kalpa Sutra, however, does not
give, apart from the succession list, any other information about the
patriarchs of the Jain Church.This history is contained in Hemachandra's Parishishtaparvan
orSthaviravali and in the last
part of Bhadreshvara's Kathavali, a huge work in Prakrit
prose.Both these are legendary
histories or rather hagiographies, i.e. they give mostly the legends connected
with the lives of these patriarchs and the contemporary kings.The "history" of the Jain
Church as given below is mostly based on Hemachandra's Sthaviravali.A large part of the Sthaviravali describes
the good deeds done by the patriarchies in their previous births as a result of
which they were rewarded with saintly lives in their present births.The work also describes the political events
of the period, especially in reference to the influence that the Jain
had on these events.These descriptions
are of general interest.(The events
are perhaps described as the Jains would like them to have happened, and
not necessarily as they actually happened).

The first six patriarchies
after Mahavira were:

1. Sudharma(n)4.
Sayyambhava

2. Jambu5. Yashobhadra

3. Prabhava6. Bhadrabahu and

Sambhutavijaya.

Sudharman

"Sudharman
entered the order at the age of fifty; thirty years he was the disciple of
Mahavira, twelve years after whose death he reached kevalam.He died eight years later, having
accomplished his 100th year".

Jambu

"Sudharman's
successor was Jambu.It is related that
once Sudharman, surrounded by his disciples, Jambu etc., arrived in Champa, and
took up his abode in the part outside the town. As was usual, a crowd gathered
to hear his preaching.King Kunika
(Ajatashatru) saw the crowd and came to hear the sermon.When the sermon was at an end, the king
asked Sudharman who Jambu was, for the king greatly struck with the beauty and
the remarkable appearance of Jambu. Sudharman related to him Jambu's history,
and foretold that he would be the last kevalin.After him nobody would reach Manahpayaya
and the Paramvadhi stages of supernatural knowledge; the JinaKalpa
would be abandoned together with other holy institutions and practices, while
on earth the sanctity of men would go on decreasing". (IV, 1-54)2

Here
perhaps we get the first hint of the schism between the Shvetambara and
the Digambara Churches.One of
the practices of Jina Kalpa is the complete nudity of the monks. The
Shvetamabara monks have abandoned this practice and follow what is known as sthavir-Kalpa.It is interesting to note that the name of
Jambu's successor Prabhava who presumably followed the sthavira Kalpa
does not appear in any of the lists of patriarchs of the Digambaras.

Prabhava

"Jambu
reached beatification 64 years after Mahavira's Nirvana, having
appointed Prabhava of the Katyayana gotra as the visible head of the
Church". (IV-55-61)

Shayyambhava

Shayyambhava was born a
heretic and at first he studied the Vedic religion under his guru.Once he met two monks who said: "Ah,
you know not the truth." This unsettled his mind and a few days later he
took farewell of his guru and went in search of the two monks.At lasts, he came to Prabhava from whom he
asked for instruction in the Jain religion. Prabhava explained to him
the five vows of the Jains; and when Shayyambhava had renounced his
former heretical views, he received Diksha and became a zealous
ascetic.He learned the fourteen Purvas
and became, after Prabhava's death, the head of the Church". (V, 36-54)

The Dashavaikalika

When
Shyyambhava took Diksha, he had left his young wife behind.They had as yet no children.The circumstances made the forsaken woman's
case appear still more miserable, so that people compassionately asked her if
there was no hope of offspring.She
answered in Prakrit, "manayam" i.e. "a little".
Hence the boy to whom she eventually gave birth, was called Manaka.When Manaka was eight years old, and became
aware that his mother was not dressed like a widow, he asked her who his father
was.He then learned that his father
was Shayyambhava, who, becoming a monk, had left before he, Manaka, was born,
and never returned.Manka who yearned
for his father secretly left his mother and went to Champa.There he met his father, and as he did not
recognize him as such, he inquired of him about his father by whom he wanted to
be ordained.Upon which Shayyambhava
gave himself out as the most intimate friend of his father in whose stead he
would ordain him.Manaka agreeing to
this Shayyambhava brought him to the monks without explaining the relation
subsisting between the boy and himself.The boy was ordained. Shayyambhava by means of his supernatural
knowledge perceived that his son would die in six months.The time being too short for mastering the
whole sacred lore, in extensor, Shayyambhava condensed its essence in ten
lectures, which he composed in the afternoon.Hence the work is called Dashavaikalika.For thought to make abstracts of the Law is allowed to none but
the last Dashapurvin, yet under certain circumstances a Shrutakevalin
may do so.Manaka learned the
Dashavaikalika, and thus he was well instructed in the religion.When the six months were over and he died,
Shayyambhava wept so much at Manaka's death that his disciples were at a loss
to comprehend his deportment which appeared so unbecoming of a world-renouncing
monk, and said as much.He then told
them Manaka's history, and declared that he wept for joy because his son had
died a saint.The disciples learning
then that Manaka was their acharya's son wondered why he had not told
them this before.Shayyambhava replied
that if they had known Manaka to be his son, they would not have exacted the
obedience, which is the duty of every novice, and the most meritorious part of
his moral exercise.He added that for
the sake of Manaka's instruction, he had composed Dashavaikalika, but now the
object being attained, he would cause his work to disappear. The disciples,
however, moved the Sangha to solicit Shayyambhava that he should publish
the Sashavaikalika. Shayyambhava complying with their wishes, that work has
been preserved." (V 55-105)

Yashobhadra

At
last Shayyambhava died, having appointed Yashobhadra as his successor". (V
106-107)

Bhadrabahu and
Sambhutavijaya

"After
a most exemplary life of an ascetic and a teacher, Yashobhadra died leaving the
management of the Church to his disciples Bhadrahu and Sambhutavijaya".

Hemchandra
in his Sthaviravali now goes back about a hundred years to the time when
Pataliputra, the new capital of Magadh, was founded.Later he describes the political history of
the period of Nandas and the Mauryas and then comes back to the history
of the Jain Church.

Founding of Pataliputra

"Kunika
was the king of Magadh at the time of Mahavira. Kunika's capital was
Champa.When he died, his son Udayin
succeeded him.Everything in his
residency brought back to him the memory of his deceased father, and rendered
him exceedingly sad.His Ministers, therefore,
persuaded him to found a new capital, just as Kunika had founded Champa, after
leaving Rajagriha on the death of his father.In order to find a site suitable for the future capital, Udayin
dispatched men versed in the interpretation of omens.When they had reached the bank of the Ganga, they came
upon a magnificent Patali tree.On a
bough of this tree was perched a Chasa bird.The bird opened from time to time its bill in which insects fell by
themselves.The augurs noticing this
remarkable omen, returned to the King, and recommended the spot for erecting
the new Capital.An old auger then
declared that the Patali tree was not a common tree, for he had heard
from wise men a story about it.The
story was about one Annikaputra who had even in a painful situation succeeded
in concentrating his thoughts, and thus at last reached Nirvana, which
event was duly celebrated by the gods near this place.This place henceforth became a famous tirtha
called Prayaga.The skull of
Annikaputra was drifted down by the river and landed on the bank.There the seed of a Patali tree found its
way into it, and springing up it developed into the tree that was to mark the
site of the new capital.In the center
of this city a fine Jain Temple was raised by the order of the monarch
who was a devout Jain. (VI, 21-174)

How Nanda became king of Magadh

"Udayin
the king of Magadh was murdered by the agent of a rival king.Udayin was childless.His ministers, therefore, sent the Royal
Elephant in a procession through the main street for searching out the next
king.At that moment Nanda was coming
from the opposite side in his marriage procession.Nanda was the son of the courtesan by a barber.When the two processions met, the State
Elephant put Nanda on his back, the horse neighed, and other such auspicious
omens were seen.In short, it was evident
that the royal insignia themselves pointed him out as the successor of
Udayin.He was accordingly proclaimed
king and ascended the throne.This
event happened sixty years after the Nirvana. (VI, 231-234) The name of
Nanda's minister was Kalpaka.

Sthulabhadra

Seven
descendants of Nanda succeeded each other.The ministers of these Nanda monarchs were the descendants of Kalpaka.The minister of the ninth Nanda was also a
descendant of Kalpaka. His name was Sakatala. Sakatala had two
sons, Sthulabhadra and Shriyaka.Shriyaka was in the service of the king whose confidence and love he had
gained.

On
the death of Sakatala, the king offered Shriyaka the seal of the Prime
Minister, but he refused it in favor of his brother Sthulabhadra. Accordingly the
same offer was made to Sthulahbadra, who said that he would take the matter
into consideration.Ordered to make up
his mind without delay, his reflections took an unexpected turn; for perceiving
the vanity of the world he resolved to quit empty pleasures, and plucking out
his hair he acquainted the king with his resolution.He later took Diksha under Sambhutavijaya.

Chanakya and Chandragupta

Chanayka
was the son of the Brahman Chanin, a devout Jain.Once Chanakya was thrown out of the court of
the ninth Nanda.It was Chanakya's
fault, for he had behaved quite impertinently, but he was very sore at the
insult and wanted his revenge.He met
Chandragupta and induced him to attack Pataliputra, the capital of the
Nandas.But every time Chandra Gupta did
this he was defeated.Chanakya then
adopted the policy of subduing the outlying districts first. One of these towns
was defending itself very resolutely. Chanakya learned that the town was
protected by the idol. Chandragupta then conquered the town.One by one Chandragupta captured all the
outlying towns and was able finally to take Pataliputra, where he ascended the
throne. This event happened 155 years after Mahavira's Nirvana.

Chandragupta chooses Jain
teachers at Chanakya's instance

In
the beginning Chandragupta preferred the heretic teachers.In order to prove that heretic teachers were
worthless, Chanakya once invited them to the palace.He placed some dust on the floor near the window overlooking the
royal seraglio.When no palace servant
was there, the heretic teachers went and looked through the window. Chanakya
showed their footprints to the king, and thus proved that these heretic
teachers were looking at women.The Jain
teachers, however, who were invited the next day, remained in their seats from
the beginning till the end of their visit, and this time, of course, the dust
on the floor in front of the windows was found untouched.Chandragupta seeing the proof of the sanctity
of the Jain teachers henceforth made them his spiritual guides.(VIII,
415-435)

Birth of Bindusara and
death of Chandragupta

Chanakya served Chandragupta
as his minister throughout the life of later."On Chanakya's order, the food of Chandragupta was mixed with a
gradually increased dose of poison, so that in the end even the strongest
poison had no effect on him.Once the
queen Durdhara who was big with child was dining with the king, when Chanakya
came upon them.Observing that the
poison almost instantly killed the queen he ripped open her womb and extracted
the child.He had been nearly to late;
for already a drop of the poison had reached the boy's head, who, from this
circumstances was called Bindusara.In
ripe age he was placed on the throne by Chanakya on the decease of his father
who died by samadhi." (VIII, 437-445)

Ashoka and Samprati

"On
Bindusara's decease, his son Ashoka Shri ascended the throne.Ashoka sent his son and presumptive heir,
Kunala, to Ujjayini, there to be brought up.When the prince was eight years old, the king wrote (in Prakrit)
to the tutors that Kunala should begin his studies.One of Ashoka's wives who wanted to secure the succession to her
own son being then present took up the letter to read it, and secretly putting
a dot over the letter ‘a’, changed Adheeyu into Andheeyu another
word, meaning he must be blinded. Without rereading the letter, the king sealed
and dispatched it.The clerk in
Ujjayini was so shocked by the contents of this letter that he was unable to
read it aloud to the prince.Kunala,
therefore, seized the letter and read the cruel sentence of his father.Considering that as yet no Maurya
prince had disobeyed the chief of the house, and unwilling to set a bad
example, he stoutly put out his eyesight with a hot iron".3 (IX 14-29)

“Years
later Kunala came to Ashoka's court dressed as a minstrel and when he greatly
pleased the king by his music, the king wanted to reward him.At this the minstrel was Prince Kunala and
he was demanding his inheritance.Ashoka sadly objected that being blind Kunala never could ascend the
throne.Thereupon the latter said that
he claimed the kingdom not for himself but for his son."When", cried the king, "has
a son been born to you?" "Just now Samprati) was the
answer.Samprati accordingly was the
name given to Kunala's son, and though a baby in arms, he was anointed Ashoka's
successor, after whose demise he ascended the throne and became a powerful
monarch.Samprati was a staunch Jain".

Hemachandra
then describes the manner in which the ten Purvas were preserved by
Sthulabhadra.The principal character
in this famous incident was Bhadrabahu, and as Bhadrabahu died 170 years after
the Nirvana of Mahavira, i.e. fifteen years after the accession of
Chandragupta, it is clear that the incident described below happened during the
reign of Chandragupta.

Sthulabhadra learns the Purvas
from Bhadrabahu

"A
dreadful dearth prevailing about this time forced the monks to emigrate as far
as the seaside.During these unsettled
times they neglected their regular studies, so that the sacred lore was on the
point of falling into oblivion. The Sangha, therefore, reassembling at
Pataliputra when the famine was over, collected the fragments of the canon
which the monks happened to recollect, and in this way brought together eleven Angas.In order to recover the Drishtivada,the
Sangha sent monks to Bhadrabahu in Nepal commanding him to join the
Council.Bhadrabahu, however, declined
to come, as he had undertaken the Mahaprana vow, which it would take 12 years
to carry out; but after that period he would in a short time teach the whole of
the Drishtivada.Upon receiving the
answer, the Sangha again dispatched two monks to ask Bhadrabahu what penalty he
who disobeyed the Sangha incurred.If
he should answer excommunication, then they should reply that such was his
punishment.Everything coming about as
foreseen, Bhadrabahu requested some clever monks to whom he would daily deliver
seven lessons at suitable time.Accordingly 500 monks with Sthulabhadra as their leader,were sent to Bhadrabahu.But all of them except Sthulabhadra,
becoming tired by the slowness of their progress, soon fell off; Sthulabhadra
alone stayed out the whole term of his master's vow.At the end of it he had learned the first ten Purvas.(IX,
55-76)

Sthulabhadra
and Bhadrabahu, it appears, then went back to Pataliputra.Sthulabhadra had seven sisters.These sisters of Sthulabhadra paying their
reverence to Bhadrabahu after his arrival in Pataliputra, asked him where their
brother stayed, and were directed to some temple.On their approach Sthulabhadra transferred himself into a lion,
in order to gratify his sisters with the sight of a miracle.Of course the frightened girls ran back to
their guru to tell him that a lion had devoured their brother.
Bhadrabahu however assured them that their brother was alive, and so they found
him on their return to the temple".

"When
his sisters had left Sthulabhadra, he went to Bhadrabahu for his daily
lesson.But the latter refused to teach
him any more, as he had become unworthy of it. Sthulabhadra then replied that
he remembered no sin since his ordination, but being reminded by him of what he
had done, he fell at his feet and implored his forgiveness.Bhadrabahu, however, would not take up his
instruction.Even the whole Sangha
could only with great difficulty overcome his reluctance.He at last consented to teach Sthulabhadra
the rest of the Purvas on the condition only that they (viz. He should
not hand down the last four Purvas) to anybody else.On Bhadrabahu's death, 170 years after Mahavira's Nirvana,
Sthulabhadra became the head of the Church.)(IX,101- 113).

Mahagiri & Suhastin

"Sthulabhadra
had two disciples, Mahagiri and Suhastin. As Yaksarya brought them up,5 the
word arya was prefixed to their names.Sthulabhadra taught them the ten Purvas, for the last four Purvas
he was forbidden to teach.After their
teacher's decease they succeeded to his place."(X,36-40)

"After
some time, Mahagiri made over his disciples to Suhastin and lived as a Jinakalpika,
though the Jina Kalpa had by that time fallen into disuse."(XI,1-4)

Hemchandra
had stated earlier that Jina Kalpa was abandoned after Jambu.Does Mahagiri's acceptance of Jina Kalpa signify
the break up of the Jain Church into the two sects Digambara and Shvetambara?This does not appear to be the case, for
Mahagiri's name does not figure in any list of sthaviras of the Digambras.
Also, Hemacandra's statement that Mahagiri had handed overhis disciples to Suhastin is perhaps
not correct , for Nandi Sutra, a Svetambra text gives the succession
list6 of Mahagiri'sdisciples, and this list is completely different from the list of
successors of Suhastin given in the Kalpa Sutra.

In
other words, when Mahagiri started living as a Jina Kalpa, he either had
not made over his disciples to Suhastin, or if he had done so, then he might
have had picked up a new group of disciples later.One thing is clear: Mahagiri's successors did not leave many
impresses on the history of Jainism.Except for the Nandi Sutra list, their names have practically
disappeared.As stated earlier the only
one whose name occurs in the legends composed in the later times was Mangu.

Spread of Jainism

Buddhism had spread all over
India and to some places outside India due to the missionary efforts of
Ashoka.A similar role in the case of
Jainism was played, according to Hemachandra, by Ashoka's grandson
Samprati.Hemachandra continues.

"The
king (Samprati) looking up to Suhastin as his greatest benefactor, was
converted by him to the true faith, and hence forth strictly performed all
duties enjoined to the laity.He
further showed his zeal by causing Jina Temples to be erected over the
whole of Jambudvipa". (XI, 55-65)

“The
example and advice of Samprati induced his vassals to embrace and patronize his
creed, so that not only in his own kingdom, but also in the adjacent countries,
the monks could practice their religion.”

"In
order to extend the sphere of their activity to uncivilized countries, Samprati
sent there messengers disguised as Jain monks.They described to the people the kind of good and other
requisites which monks accept as alms, enjoining them to give such things
instead of the usual taxes to the revenue collectors who would visit them from
time to time.Of course, these revenue
collectors were to be Jain monks.Having thus prepared the way for them, he induced the Superior to send
monks to these countries, for they would find it in no way impossible to live
there.Accordingly, missionaries were
sent to the Andras and Dramilas, who found everything as the king had
told.Thus the uncivilized nations were
brought under the influence of Jainism". (XI, 89- 102)

"Such
was the religious Zeal of the king (Samprati) that he ordered the merchants to
give the monks gratis all things they should ask for, and to draw on the royal
treasury for the value of the goods.It
may be imagined that the merchants did not hesitate to obey the king's
order". (XI, 103-112).

All
this necessarily had a corrupting effect on the Jain monks, and
Mahagiri, the ascetic-minded patriarch protested.Hemachandra continues:

"Although
the alms with which the monks were supplied are expressly forbidden by the
rules of the Church, Suhastin, afraid to offend the zealous king, dared not
make any opposition.Mahagiri,
therefore, severely blamed Suhastin, and resolved definitely to separate from
him.For as he said, there was an old
prophecy that after Sthulabhadra, the conduct of the Jains would
deteriorate.Accordingly after saluting
the image of Jivantasvamin, he left Avanti and went to the Tirtha
Gajendrapada.There, starving himself
to death, he reached Svarga.Samprati dying at the end of his reign, during which he continued a
patron of the Jains, became a God and at last he will reach Siddhi".
(XI, 113-127)

The Temple of Mahakala in
Ujjayini

There
was a merchant's son called Avantisukvmala.Once he heard the preaching of Suhastin and was thus greatly attracted
towards Jainism.He became a monk, but
as he was of a delicate constitution, he could not stand the rigor and died
while starving.His son built a
magnificent temple at the spot where his father so manfully had faced
death.This temple is still famous in
the world as the temple of Mahakala.

(Hemachandra
does not say so specifically, but the implication clearly is that this temple
was originally a Jain temple, and was later converted into a Hindu
temple by the Shaivites.In the
thirteenth century (AD 1234) Iltutmish destroyed this temple.Ramchandra, Diwan of the Peshwa built the
present temple of Mahakala on the same site, in 1745.)

"In
the course of time Suhastin left this world starving himself to death, and
entered heaven". (XI.176-178)

Hemachandra
then leaves out the next four patriarchs from Suhastin onwards are as follows:
8 Suhastin.9 Susthita-
Supratibuddha.10 Indra.11 Dinna.12 Sinhagiri.13 Vajra.

Hemachandra
does not mention Susthita, Indra and Dinna at all, and mentions Sinhagiri only
as the guru of Vajra.

Vajra
was the son of Dhanagiri, a disciple of Sinhagiri. Dhanagiri had left his house
soon after his wife became pregnant.The child who was born to this abandoned woman was very troublesome and
her relations gave him away to Sinhagiri when he had come to the area on a
preaching mission.Since the child was
very heavy in weight Sinhagiri named him Vajra. He was then educated in the
sacred literature.Sinhagiri wanted
Vajra to be master in the knowledge of the sacred books, so he sent Vajra to
Bhadragupta in Ujjayini. Bhadragupta was master of ten Purvas.

"Soon
afterwards Vajra arrived, and was most cordially received by Bhadragupta, who
readily imparted to him the knowledge of the Purvas.The object of Vajra's mission being
accomplished in a short time, he returned to Dashapura and joined his guru.The latter permitted him to teach the Purvas,
which event the Gods celebrated by showering down a rain of flowers.Sinhagiri, after having made over to Vajra,
his gana, put an end to his earthly career by self- starvation.Vajurasvamin, then traveling about in
company with 500 monks preached the Law; wherever he went he was admired and
praised by all."

How the knowledge of the
later part of the 10th Purva was lost

There
was a person called Aryarakshita.He
went to great acharya to learn the Drishtivada.The acharya asked him to become a
monk first.Aryarakshita was willing to
do so at once, but he induced the monks to remove their residence; for he was
afraid that the king and the people would importune him to leave the
order.(This was the first case that Jains
were guilty of seducing disciples of other sects.)Aryarakshita became a pious monk and he readily acquired all
knowledge that the acharya possessed.But when he was told that Vajra in Puri knew more of the Drishtivada
than his teacher, he went and joined Vajra.

Then
Aryarakshita began his studies and in a short time had mastered nine Purvas.It was when he learned the yamakas of
the 10th Purva that the course of his studies was interrupted.For about this time a letter arrived from
his parents entreating him to return home.Vajra was at first reluctant to let him go without learning all the Purvas,
but when more such letters came requesting Aryaraksita to go back home,
"Vajra at last permitted him to go, because his intuition told him that he
(Vajra) should soon die, and with him the knowledge of the complete 10th Purva."(XIII, 134)

"With
Vajra died out the knowledge of the complete 10th Purva, and the fourth Samhanana
came to its end."(XIII, 179)

"From
Vajra are derived all the divisions of the Church which exist at the present
time."(XIII, 201-203).

Thus
Hemachandra ends the Sthaviravali, the history of the patriarchs of the Jain
Church.In the 13th canto of his work
he mentions one or two incidents from the life of Vajrasena who was the
successor of Vajra, but these are not important in the history of the
Church.(Aryarakshita whom Vajra had
taught most of the Purvas never became a patriarch, but his pupil Gotthamahila
was the person who started the seventh schism of the Jain Church in 584 AV.).

It
appears from the account given by Hemachandra that generally it was one person
who occupied the top place in the Church, and this person was the one who knew
the Jain sacred literature in full. There was up to that time no written
record of this literature and everything had to be committed to memory.People with such good memory are not easy to
find at any time, and the Jains had to find such men among the limited
number of people who would accept the strict rules of the Jain
monk-hood.Only twice there were two
heads of the Church living simultaneously.The second of this occasion was during the reign of king Samprati in
Ujjayini.At that time Mahagiri and
Suhanstin headed the Church simultaneously. Of the two, Mahagiri was
conservative.He wanted the Jain
monks to live strictly in the manner prescribed in the Law. Since he was unable
to enforce this, he went away and starved himself to death.

The
headquarters of the Jain Church was generally in the capital city of the
most powerful ruler of that time. When Udayin, founded his new capital city at
Pataliputra, the head quarters of the Church was moved there.It remained there throughout the period of
the Nandas and the first three Mauryas.When the fourth Maurya king Samprati (one of Ashoka's grandsons)
set up his capital to Ujjayini, the headquarters of the Jain Church also
moved there.

As
noted earlier Hemachandra does not describe the lives of the four patriarchs
between Suhastin and Vajra.These four
patriarchs are named in the Kalpa Sutra. A question may be raised as to
whether even this Kalpa Sutra list is a complete one, for the
possibility is that the number of patriarchs between Suhastin and Vjra was more
than four.Jacobi arrives at this
conjecture on the following basis;7

Hemachandra
mentions that Bhadrabahu died 170 years (170 AV.) after the Nirvana of
Mahavira.As Bhadrabahu was the sixth
patriarch, this gives an average period of a little less than thirty years for
each patriarch up to Bhadrabahu.

On
the other hand if we accept the usual date given for the sixth schism to be 544
AV., then we find the difference between the lifetime of its author Rohagutta
and the death of Bhadrabahu as 374 years.Now Rohagutta8 was a prashishya of Suhastin, the
eighth patriarch, e.g., he belonged to the generation of the tenth
patriarch.This gives only four
patriarchs in an interval of 374 years that means 94 years for each patriarch.This according to Jacobi is an absurd
figure.It may be question whether the
date of the sixth schism, viz. 544 AV. is correctly recorded.Jacobi has also examined this point.The first seven schisms of the Jain
Church have been described in the AvasyakaNirykti, but it does
not mention the eighth schism (the Shvetambara- Digambara split)
which is said to have taken place in 609 AV.), or, say, 50 to 60 years
after the 6th schism (544 AV.).So there is not much possibility that the date of this schism could have
been forgotten by that time."To
sum up, if we base our inquiry on the well established date of the schisms,9
we arrive at the conclusion that the list of Theras(patriarchs) is imperfectly handed down;
there must have been far more theras than are contained in the Theravalis."

"In
other words the Theravalis do not furnish a connected list of patriarchs
succeeding each other as teacher and disciple, but a patched up list of
patriarchs whose memory survived in oral and literary tradition, while the rest
of them had fallen in utter oblivion."10

It
will be noticed that Hemachandra ends his Sthaviravali in an enigmatic
manner."From Vajra are derived
all the divisions of the Church which exist at the present time."What these divisions were, are not
stated.It may be conjectured that
Vajra had supported chaityavasa (dwelling by monks in temples a practice
that led later to corruption among the Svetambaras.An inscription of about the 1st century AD
on the Son Bhandara (Rajgir, Bihar) shows that Acharya Vaira (Vajra)
excavated two caves that were suitable for dwellings of monks and in which Jain
images were installed for worship.

REFERENCES

2. The figures in the brackets
refer to the canto and shloka numbers in the Asiatic Society edition of
Hemchandra's sthaviravali. The portions within inverted commas are
Jacobi's summaries of these shlokas.

3. The Buddhist version of
how Kunala was blinded is different. It is said that Tishyaraksha, the chief
queen of Ashoka, fell in love with Kunala who tried to desist his stepmother.
In her fury she caused him to be blind; or Kurala tore out his own eyes to
prove his innocence. Cambridge History of India, Vol. I. P. 451)

4. Ashoka's successor,
according to some Buddhist sources, was Konala whose successor, according to
some Buddhist sources, was Kunala whose successor was his son Samprati.
Cambridge History of India, Vol. I, p. 461

5. "Evidently
Sthulabhadra's eldest sister is meant."(Note by Jacobi)

6. Appendix V.

7. Introduction to the Sthaviravali,
p. xvii

8. "Rohagutta was a
disciple of Suhasti." (Jacobi's note). This does not appear to be correct.
According to the Kalpa Sutra Rohagutta was a disciple of Mahagiri, colleague
of Suhastin. This makes the matter more confusing.

9. Jacobi himself questions
the dates of the various schisms given in the AvashyakNirukti.
The 4th schism was started by Assamita, who was a disciple of Kodinna, a
disciple of Mahagiri, in 220 AV. and the 5th schism was started by Ganga
who was the disciple of Dhanagutta, disciple of Mahagiri in 228 AV. Thus
the difference between the periods of the two heresies both started by prashishyas
of Mahagiri is eight years. But the 6th schism that was since we know that
Mahagiri and Suhastin were contemporaries, the difference between the ages of
their prashisyas could not be as much as 300 years.

10. Ibid., p. xix.

Extension of Jainism -Early Period

The Epigraphic Evidence

Eastern India - Bengal

We
consider Bengal first, not because it was an important center of Jainism, but because it is easy to trace the growth
and extinction of this religion in this part of the country.We have seen that Mahavira himself had gone
to Ladha (West Bengal) in his pre-Kevalin days and had met with uncivil
behavior from the inhabitants.It is
likely that during Mahavira's time the cultural level of the people in that
part of the country was not high enough.

The
conditions seemed to have changed dramatically only two centuries later.At the time of Chandragupta Maurya,
Bhadrabahu was the head of the Jain church in Magadh.One of Ghadrabahu's disciples Godasa had
formed the Godasa Gana. This Godasa Gana according to the Kalpa
Sutra had been divided into four Shakhas.It is interesting to note that three of these four Shakhas
were named after three important cities of ancient Bengal.These Shakhas were Tamraliptika
(after Tamralipta in south Bengal), Kotivarisiya (after Kotivarsha in north
Bengal).It seems that the center of
Jainism must have shifted towards Bengal at that time.Otherwise the Shakhas would not have been
named after these Bengal cities.

Some
of the Shakhas, Ganas, kulas, etc., mentioned in the Kalpa
Sutra have been found to occur in the inscriptions discovered in
Mathura.These inscriptions belong to
the first a few centuries of the Christian era.This proves that the Shakhas, etc., mentioned in the Kalpa
Sutra actually existed.It is
likely therefore, that the Shakhas named after the Bengal cities were also
actual ones, and not later fictitious additions.

The
first epigraphic evidence of the existence of Jainism in Bengal is a copper
plate inscription at Paharpur in the Rajshahi district of Bengal.The date of the inscription is Gupta year
159 (AD 479.)It mentions the existence
of a Vihara established by the disciples of the Nirgrantha Guhanandi.Hiuen Tsang who stayed in India between AD
629 to 645 also visited Bengal.He
wrote that among the non-Buddhists in Pundravardhana the majority were DigambaraNirgranthas.

This
strong influence of Jainism appears to have abruptly declined immediately after
this time for none of the copperplate inscriptions of the Pala and Sena kings
of Bengal mentions Jainism.It is to be
noted that practically no stone images of Gods of a date prior to the ninth
century have been found in Bengal.By
that time Jainism had almost disappeared from Bengal and, therefore, very Jain
stone images have been found in this area.Among the Jain stone images found in Bengal the following are
note worthy:

(1) An image of Rishabhanatha
has been found in the Dinajpur District.The image built perhaps in the early Pala period, is one of the most
beautiful images found in Bengal.Rishabhanatha is shown here in the sitting position of dhyanamudra.

(2) Another image of
Rishabhanatha was found in the Barabhum village in the Midnapur district.Here the image is in standing, e.g., kayotsarga-posture.

(3) A dhyana- Mudra
image of Parahvanatha has been found in the Deulbhir village of the
Bankura district.

(4) A kayotsarga image
of Parshvanatha has been found in Datta-Benia village of the Twenty-four Parganas
district.

(5) A kayotasarga
image of Shantinatha has been found in Ujani village of the Bardhamana
district.

All
these images have been identified definitely as those of JainTirthankaras.Kshitit Mohan Sen3 however
thought that, there were many other Jain images in West Bengal.These have lost their identification
marks.Their Jain connection has
been forgotten and, the villagers worship these images to day as Bhairavas .4

Sen
also traces some Bengali words to their Jain origin.For instance the upper garment of the Jain
monks is called `pachheri'.This
in Bengali has become `pachhari'. Similarly the broom used by the Jain
monks is called `pichhi'.In
East Bengal a broom is a `pichha'.

It
must, however, be admitted, that Jainism which was quite strong in Bengal
fifteen hundred years ago, has now disappeared from this area leaving few
traces among the indigenous population.

Bihar

From
a reading of the Parishishtaparvan of Hemachandra it would appear that Jainism
nearly disappeared from Bihar when Smaprati the grandson of Ashoka started
ruling from Ujjayini in the 3rd century BC.This is not so.The Jains
continued to exist in Bihar, and carried on building their temples and images
all over South Bihar for many centuries. Many Jain images have been
found in Bihar especially in the Manbhum district."Among the other old Jain remains in Manbhum
district, particular mention need be made about the Jain temples and sculptures
at the small village Pakbira, 32 km.North-east of Bara Bazar or 50 km.by Purulia- Ranchi road in Manbhum district.They had attracted the attention of the archaeological department
in the last century.Report of the
Archaeological Survey of India, Vol.VIII, mentions about the remains at Pakbira as follows: `Here are
numerous temples and sculptures, principally Jain; the principal object
of attention here is a colossal naked figure, with the lotus as symbol on the
pedestal, the figure is 2.25 meters high;...'"

It
is surmised that Jainism was quite active in Bihar up to the 12th century.Since most of the images found are nude it
is possible to conjecture that the majority of the Jains then in Bihar
were Digambaras.Also since they
have left behind no literature we may assume that they were ordinary people
with no intellectual pretensions.The
community must have been financially well off.Otherwise they would have been able to build so many images.

Orissa

It
is difficult to say whether Jainism had ever been a strong force in
Orissa.Our evidence from the early
period is the two inscriptions found in the Udayagiri caves near
Bhubaneswar.One of these is by King
Kharavela in the Hathigumpha cave.The
other is by his chief Queen (Aghamahisi) in the Manchapuri cave.On paleographic evidence D. C. Sircar had
suggested that the inscriptions belong to the first century BC.6

The
Queen's inscription is a short one dedicating the cave for the use of the Jainshramnas.Thus it may be
concluded that she was respectful towards the Jain religion. The
Hathigumpha inscription of King Kharavela has been the subject of many learned
comments by eminent historians. Among other reasons for the interest in this
inscription is the fact that the inscription is quite a long one, and gives
details of a number of occurrences of historical interest. Here, however, only
those aspects of this inscription that relate to Jainism need be discussed.

The
inscription starts with the benediction Namoarhantam namo sava-sidhanam.This is the Jain formula7 of veneration and therefore,
Kharavela was either a Jain by religion or he had great respect for this
religion.In the 12th year of his reign
Kharavela brought back the (image of) Kalinga Jina8 to
Orissa, this had been taken away by Nandaraja of Magadh.

This
was either a religious act or a matter of prestige for Kharavela.In the thirteenth year of his reign he
mentions the erection of a shrine in the vicinity of the relic depository9
of the Arihanta on the Kumari Parvata.

These
exhaust the list of references to Jainism in the Hathigumpha inscriptions.

Except
for these inscriptions' one by Kharavela and the other by his queen, we know
nothing about Jainism in Orissa in that period.Schubring is not inclined to give much importance to the
Kharavela inscription from the Jain point of view.He said:"This much mutilated inscription it is true, begins with a Jinist
formula of veneration, but what tangible deeds in favor of the Jains the
scholars were inclined to interpret from it have turned out to be untenable or
remained inexplicable.We may
presuppose that Jain communities flourished within Kharavels's reign.”10
One is inclined to agree with this view of Stubbing, for if Kharavela, an
important king of Kalinga according to his own reckoning, was a Jain, he
would surely find mention in the old Jainliterature.But Jain
literature does not contain even a hint that Kharavela existed.

Another
significant thing about the Hathigumpha remains is that "except for Kharavela's
inscriptions we could not attribute these to the Jains, for nothing of
the decoration reveals their Jain character: the deities depicted are
early Hindu, e.g. the sun-God Surya and the lotus Goddess Gaja- Laksmi
(Padma-Shri); the figural relief in the Rani-Gumpha
have been interpreted by some as scenes from the life of Parshvanatha and by
others as episodes from the popular stories of Vasavadatta and Shakuntala; and
the whole building is even thought to have been a theater......"11

In
short, we know that Kharavela's chief queen was a patron of the Jains
and Kharavela himself also had a friendly attitude towards them.

There
is positive evidence that in the 11th century some caves of the Khandagiri
group, specially Cave no. 11, were used as Jain sacred places."......a few of the old cells were
converted into sanctuaries by the carving of relief of Tirthankaras and
the Shasanadevis on the walls"12.A large number of nude chlorite images of
the different Tirthankaras all belonging to this period have also been
found here."The prolonged Digambara
association of the Khandagiri caves during the reign of the Gangas and
their successors, the Gajapatis, is proved by the crude relief of the Tirthankaras
on the walls of the cave, which are not earlier in date than the 15th century
and may be even later.Evidence
regarding the cells being tenanted in this period and monastic fraternities is,
however, lacking."13

Influence
of Jainism seems to have disappeared from Orissa after the sixteenth century.

We
thus know that Jainism existed in Orissa for a Period of about seventeen
hundred years from the first century BC to the 16th century.For a large part of this period the
Khandagiri caves were used as a religious center by them, as resting places of
the monks and perhaps also as temples, but we do not know whether the
occupation of these caves by the Jains was continuous or
intermittent.The Existence of the nude
images of the Tirthankaras in the eleventh century proves that at least
in the later days the Jains who occupied the caves belonged to the Digambara
sect.

Spread of Jainism in South India-Early period

We
do not know when and how Jainism entered South India. Traditionally Shravana
Belgola in South West Karnataka is said to be the earliest Jain center
in South India. Unfortunately, however, there is no epigraphic evidence to
support this theory.The Earliest Jain
inscription found at this place is believed to be about AD 600,14
though some Jain inscriptions older than this have been found in areas
near about this place.One of them, a
copper plate inscription found in Mercara (Coorg) and dated AD 466- 67 mentions
the gift of the village Badaneguppe to the Shrivijaya Jain-temple at
Talvananagara.15 This proves that Jains were established in
this area in the 5th century, but Shravana Belgola itself might not have been
their first center in South India.

The
inscription of AD 600 found at Shravana Belgola, is one of the most important
records in the history of Jainism.A
summary of this inscription is as below:

"After
Mahavira the succession of pupils was Gautama, Lohacharya, Jambu,
Vishnudeva, Aparajita, Govardhana, Bhadrabahu, Vishakha, Prothila, Kritikarya
(?), Jaya, Siddhartha, Dhrtisena, etc.Bhadrabahu who belonged to this list, with his knowledge of the past,
present and future, came to know that a twelve-year famine (vaisamya)
was about to occur in Ujjayini.The
whole Sangha then moved towards the South (Daksinapatha). They
reached a prosperous area. Acharya Prabhachandra knowing his end was
near stayed on the Katavapra hill with one disciple, and asked the rest of the Sangha
to proceed further.Prabhachandra then
started his samadhiaradhana....16

Thus
it would appear that it was Prabhachandra who had led the first (?) Jain
Sangha to South India and the Sangha, which went there, started from
Ujjayini.In later Digambara
works the story was modified."The
Bhadrabahu- Katha (about AD 800) and the Brihatkatkosha (AD 931) report that
towards the end of his life Bhadrabahu ordered his followers to move away to
Punnata (South-Karnataka), whereas Bhadrabahu- Charitra (2nd half of the
century) says that he himself took the lead and died on the way".17
Since the Digambaras believe that there were two Bhadrabahus, the first
of whom died 162 years after Mahavira's Nirvana(i.e. in 365 BC), and the second 515 years
after the Nirvana (i.e. in 12 BC),18it is not clear which Bhadrabahu these later authors were
talking about.

The Shvetambara
tradition as recorded in Hemachandra's Parishishtaparvan was, as we have seen,
quite different. There the Sangha was said to have moved to the seacoast when a
dreadful dearth prevailed in the Magadh area, and came back to Magadh
when the famine ended.Bhadrabahu
himself did not go to the seacoast with the Sangha but had actually gone to
Nepal where he undertook the Mahaprana vow.He came back and joined the Sangha in Magadh after
performing the austerities.

Also
it was Samprati, the successor of Ashoka, who according to Hemchandra prepared
the ground for the spread of Jainism in South India (Andras and Dramilas).Ujjayini was at that time the capital of
Samprati.Hemchandra's version appears
to be more plausible than the later Digambara traditions.

Epigraphic
evidence available so far would tend to show that Jainism entered the Deccan
through the West.Halsi, known in
ancient times as Palasika in the Belgaum district was the most important Jain
center in the Deccan in the fifth century.The Kadamba kings of Palasika were patrons of Jainism at that time.They themselves were Brahmans, but
some of them made grants of land to Jains, and erected Jain
temples.19 This also supports the view that Jainism entered South
India through the west and perhaps from Ujjayini itself.

Another
important Jain center in the Deccan was Altem in the Kolhapur
district.We have there an epigraph of Shaka
411 (AD 489) which records the erection of a Jain temple by a feudatory
of the Calukyas.He is styled as
Samiyar.20

Tamil Nadu

No
definite evidence of the existence of Jainism in the early period has been
found in Tamil Nadu."A large
number of caverns have been discovered in the hills and mountainous regions in
the Pudukkottai area and Madura and Tinnevelly districts. The two last named areas are particularly
rich in these antiquities and the Madura district is known to possess numerous
monuments of this kind.These caverns
are found generally containing inscriptions.These epigraphs are in the Brahmi characters of the 3rd century
BC. These antiquities and records are attributed to the Jains."21

This
point that the caves perhaps belonged to the Jains, was made by K. V.
Subramnia Iyer,22 a few decades ago. At that time the inscriptions
had not been deciphered.In 1966 I.
Mahadevan 23 was able to read most of these inscriptions (which
number about 75).The inscriptions
mention the dedication of the caves by the rulers or their servants to
religious people.What exactly was the
religion of these people to whom the caves were dedicated is not clear.Some of the terms used in the inscriptions
are `Asiriyan' (archarya), `Upasakam', `Palli'
(non-Hindu temples), etc. In one place viz., Pukalur, the word `Ammanam'(naked one) is also found. It will not
perhaps be correct to attribute the dedication of the caves to the Jain
monks on the basis of these few words only.Clearly the Donees were religious people, but they could have
belonged to any of the non-orthodox sects such as the Buddhists, Ajivakas
or the Jains.The `naked one'
could in fact be an Ajivika monk, for we know that according to their
rules the monks had to remain naked.Thus this cave could have been dedicated to the Ajivikas.

Jainism,
however, in later centuries became an important religion of the Tamil Land, and
left its mark on the Tamil literature.

Andhra

Andhra
is virtually devoid of all traces of Jainism in the first few centuries AD 24

Northern and Western India

The
earliest epigraphic evidence of the existence of the Nigantha sect in northern
India comes from a solitary inscription of Ashoka (3rd century BC). This is the
Seventh Pillar Edict Ashoka and it is recorded on the pillar Firoze Shah Kotla
in Delhi.This pillar was originally in
Topra in the Ambala district of Haryana, and was brought to Delhi by Firoze
Shah Tughlak.Ashoka mentioned in this
edict that he had appointed senior officers to look after the affairs of the
religious people of the various sects.These officers had been directed to occupy themselves with matters
concerning the (Buddhist) Sangha the Brahmans, the Ajivikas, and
the Niganthas.(There are other
edicts of Ashoka that mention the Sangha, the Brahmans and the Ajivikas,
but Niganthas have not been mentioned in any other Ashokan inscription.)Since the officers were directed to look
after the Niganthas, clearly this sect existed in this area in sufficient
number.Otherwise the specific mention
of this community was not necessary.However, we have no Jain literary records to show the existence
of this community in Haryana at that time, and Mahavira himself, perhaps never
traveled west of Shravasti that is in eastern Utter Pradesh.But the epigraphic evidence is clear. The Jain
religion had by the time of Ashoka spread in northern India at least as far as
Haryana.

It
appears from the genealogy of the pontiffs given in the Kalpa Sutra that
within a hundred years of Ashoka, Jainism had spread as Far West as
Pathankot.The Jain pontiff at
the time of Samprati, the grandson of Ashoka, was Suhastin.Suhastin's disciple Rohana who became the
next pontiff had founded the Uddeha gana that was divided into four Shakhas.One of these shakhas was
Udumbarika.Now the country of
Audumbara is the present district of Gurudaspur, and its capital was
Pratisthana (Pathankot).Thus we know
that a substantially large group of Jains was settled in the Pathankot
area by the 2nd century BC

Ujjayini

The
next two centuries appear to be quite dark so far as any information about the Jains
is concerned.There are no contemporary
epigraphs or literary records.The
later Jain historians say that Jainism had spread to Ujjayini at the
time of Ashoka's grandson Samprati.Hemachandra (12th century) wrote that Suhastin the head of the Jain
Church at that time was living in Ujjayini 25 when ruled from his
capital there, and Samprati was a patron of the Jains.This might have been actually so but there
is no epigraphic or other independent proof of Samprati's affinity to Jainism.

Ujjayini,
however, was the scene of an important event which is said to have occurred in
the first century BC This legend is connected with the Shaka conquest of
Ujjayini and the origin of the Vikram era.

The
legend mentions Gardabhilla, a king of Ujjayini.He had abducted the sister of Kalakacharya, a celebrated Jain
teacher (Kalaka was a king's son and had later become Jain. His sister
whose name was Saravati was herself a Jain nun). Kalakacharya
approached one of the Scythian kings, the Shahis, in Shakasthana for help.But that king was afraid of attacking
Gardabhilla, a powerful ruler enjoying the protection of the goddess Rasabhi,
who by the spell of her voice made it impossible for an enemy to approach
within 24 kilometers of the king.On
his part Kalaka had magic powers and could produce wealth at will.He persuaded the Shaka king to raise an army
and march against Ujjayini. When he encamped at a distance of 24 kilometers
from Ujjayini, the goddess began to raise her voice for the protection of
Gardbhilla, but the shaka army stopped her mouth with their arrows, and
she became unable to utter a sound.The
Gardabhilla was easily made captive and Kalaka's sister was recovered.When he was later forgiven and released,
Gardabhilla retired to a forest where he was devoured by a tiger.Some years afterwards, the son of
Gardabhilla, according to some accounts the glorious Vikramditya, came up from
Pratisthana with an army, expelled the invaders from Ujjayini, and ruled there
for many years in great splendor and established the era that goes by his name
(58-57 BC).

Though
the exact historical foundation for this legend cannot easily be ascertained,
its setting fits the first century BC very well, as it was clearly a period of
Shaka inroads into India and of the attempts of Indian rulers, particularly the
Satavahanas to resists them.The Hindu Puranas
which describe the Satavahanas as Andhras, count Gardabhilla among the
feudatories (bhrityas) of the Andhras.26 Thus the Jain
story is partly corroborated.There
might thus be some historical truth in this legend of Kalakacharya.

It is possible that the
legend existed in some form since the first century but its first recorded form
is found in KalakacharyaKathanaka, a work by Mahesara Suri27 who probably existed at the time of Hemachandra Suri (12th
century).Thus the legend or history of
Kalakacharya was put down in writing about 1200 years after the alleged
event.

Mathura

The
inroads of the Shakas into northern India was followed by those of other
foreigners such as the Greeks, and the Kusanas, and these inroads continued for
a few centuries from the beginning of the Christian era.The political center of northern India moved
to Mathura.It was in Mathura that we
find the existence of a large prosperous Jain community at this time.

A
large number if Jain relics have been dug up from a mound called
Kankali-tila in this town.The relics
include one Jainstupa, two temples, and many inscriptions
recording the dedication of images of Tirthankaras, and other religious
things by pious Jains.Some of
these inscriptions bear dates, which mention the years in Kusana era.These dates lie between year 5 and year 98
of this era.Since we do not know the
year in which this era started, it is possible only to assign an approximate
period of these Mathura relics.

Scholars
hold different opinions about the beginning of the Kusana era.Some hold the opinion that it is the same as
the Shaka era and started in AD 78. Other dates given for the beginning of the
Kusana era are AD 102, AD 128, AD 144, etc., R. C. Majumdar has, however,
suggested 29 the date AD 244 and this suggestion appears to be
getting more and more support.If this
is correct then the years in which a flourishing Jain community lived in
Mathura lie between AD 250 and AD 350.

Mathura
during the rule of the Kusanas was the most important city of northern
India.There were in Mathura rich
people of many communities, Buddhist, Jain and Brahman. The inscriptions
dug out in many localities in Mathura show that religious monuments were built
and grants were given by all these communities.So far as Kankali-tila was concerned, it seems to have been at
this period the exclusive preserve of the Jains.Some centuries before that period, the
Buddhists, who had built a stupa here, perhaps occupied the tila.One Jain inscription (59) 30
clearly mentions that the Jain image was established on a Vodve
(Buddhist?) stupa, which had been built by the gods.It has been conjectured that the stupa at that time was already
so old, that people had forgotten who its builders were.They, therefore, thought that the Gods built
it. 31 In the Kusana period, the Buddhists seem to have moved on to
the Jamalpura mound in Mathura.

We
may now consider the Jain inscriptions of Mathura belonging to the
Kusana period.(Altogether 78
inscriptions have been given in the JainShila-Lekha Sangraha,
Vol. II. It appears that the compiler of this volume might have missed a few
more inscriptions.For instance, the
Lucknow Museum Jain Image Inscriptions 32 of Havisha ---year
48 appears to have been missed.In any
case, the total number of Jain inscriptions discovered here should not
be many more than 90).

The Rulers named in the Inscriptions

Mathura
before it came under the Kusanas was a part of the Shaka-Pahlava empire.The provincial governors under these
emperors were called Mahakshatrapas.We have only one Jain inscription (5) of a Mahakshatrapa, the one
belonging to Mahakshatrapa Sodasa in Mathura.It is dated year 72 33 but we do not know the
era.It appears that Mathura came under
the Kusanas after Sodasa.These are
three inscriptions (19, 24 and 25) of Kaniska, six of Huviska (37, 39, 43, 45,
50 and 56) who succeeded Kaniska's immediate successor Vasika who had a very
short reign, and three of Huviska's successor Vasudeva (62, 65 and 69) in the
Kankali-tila group.The names of the
rulers in the other inscriptions at this place were either not recorded or are
unreadable.

Apart
from these there are donative inscriptions, one to Nemesa (13), who may
be Negamesa, 34 and one to Nand (ya) varta (59) which
is said to be meant for the 18th Tirthankara Arantha, Nandyavarta
being his symbol.There are four
donations (22, 26, 27, and 41) to the sarvatobhadra images. These are
four-sided sculptures with images of one Tirthankara on each side.

It
is quite clear from the above that Mahavira was the most popular Tirthankara
among the Jains in Mathura at that time.Absence of Parshva's name is noticeable.

Many
of the donors have mentioned their professions.In the case of the women donors, the professions of their
husbands are sometimes mentioned.We
know from these that most of the donors belonged to the trader class, though
some of them were artisans such as goldsmiths or (iron) smiths. The list of
professions or occupations and the inscription numbers where they occur are
these:

Profession or OccupationNumber in the Jain

Shila-lekha
Sangraha

1.Shresthi
(Merchant)19, 26

2.Vanika (Trader)71

3.Manikara
(Jeweller)31

4.Lohavaniya (Iron
trader)31

5.Hairanyaka (Gold
smith)67

6.Sarthavaha
(Caravan guide)33

7.Gandhika
(Perfume seller)41, 42,
62, 69

8.Lohikakaraka
(Smith)54, 55

9.Ganika
(Courtesan)08

10.Na(r)taka (Dancer)15

11.Vacaka (Reciter, Priest?)22

12.Gramika (Village headman)44

13.Cotton dealer (35)56

We
thus get an idea as to how people of all such occupations as were common in a
large provincial capital were living in Mathura in those days.At least one courtesan was not ashamed to
disclose her profession as a stone tablet. Not much can be gleaned about social
customs from these inscriptions.Inscriptions' number 14 is interesting.Here a woman named (Ba) Lahastini declares that she along with her
parents and parents-in-law, had put up a religious arch. According to the
present Indian custom, a woman for all religious purposes belongs to her
husband's family and she has nothing to do in religious matters with her
parents. Performance of a religious act of a married woman with her own parents
in Mathura at that time perhaps shows that these people were foreigners (Shakas
or Kusanas) newly converted to Jainism and were still maintaining some of their
old customs.

The
names of a few of the donors also show foreign influence.Some of these names are Mosini (22), Bubu
(52), Vadhara (31), Huggu (31), Jabhaka (35), Nada (08), etc.

Another
Shaka influence is shown in the mutilated Sarasvati image found at
Kankali-tila.Two small figures of
attendants are shown on each side of the Goddess.One of these attendants is in Shaka.36

The
present Jain custom of women keeping long fasts was known in Mathura of
Huviska's days also.We have in
inscription number 52, the statement that one Vijayasiri who was the wife of
Rajyavasu had kept a fast for a month.

One Jain
iconography practice had already been standardized in Mathura.The images of Tirthankaras all bear
the shrivatsa37 symbol on the chest as an auspicious mark
(and perhaps also to distinguish them from the Buddha images that do not bear
such marks on the chest).

It
is perhaps not possible to state definitely whether the people who donated the
images and the other religious objects at Mathura were Svetambaras or Digambaras.The donors have mentioned their ganas,
kulas, etc., in the accompanying inscriptions.Some of these ganas, kulas, are similar to those found in
the Kalpa Sutra. 38 Now the Kalpa Sutra is a Shvetambara
work and is not recognized by Digambaras.Similarly, it is the Svetambaras only who believe that the
God Harinegamesi transferred the embryo of Mahavira to the womb of
Trishala.The Digambaras
completely reject this story.If,
therefore, the name Nemesa read in one of the Mathura inscriptions, is the
short form of "Harinegamesi", the Jains of Mathura would
definitely have to be called Svetambaras.On the other hand, all the images of the Tirthankaras found
at Kankali-tila are nude. All the Jain images of these centuries, for
instance, those found at Kahaum (AD 460) in the Gorakhpur district, depict the Tirthankaras
as nude.Added to this is the fact,
that most of the Jains of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar today are Digambaras.Thus it is difficult to be sure about the
sect of the Jains of Mathura in the Kusana period.It is likely, however, that the Shvetambara-Digambara
split had not become clear-cut by that time.In any case the Svetambaras even if they existed, as a separate
sect had not started worshipping non-nude images of the Tirthankaras,
for no non-nude image of a Tirthankara prior to the fifth century has
been found so far.

Mathura
continued to be a center of the Jains for a long time.Many Jain sculptures belonging to the
Gupta and the early medieval period have been discovered there.

References

1.Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XXII, p. 288.

2.Select Inscriptions, p. 360.

3. Pravasi (Bengali),
Vaishakha B. S 1327 (AD 1934), pp. 63, 72.

4. At Pakbira in the Manbhum
district, a colossal naked figure of Vira under the name of Bhiram is still
worshipped by the people.(Distt.Gasetteer of Manbhum, p. 51).

5. P.C. Roy Choudhary,
Jainism in Bihar, Patna, 1956, P. 46. A photograph of the 2.25 meters high
image has been reproduced in a plate facing P. 56 of this book.The caption there says that it is the image
of Bahubali. This does not appear to be correct.Bahubali has creepers entwining his legs.There are no creepers in this image.The lotus symbol on the pedestal shows that
the image is either of the Tirthankara Padmaprabhanatha whose symbol is
Red Lotus or of the Tirthankara Naminatha whose symbol is blue
Lotus.So far as is known Bahubali is
not worshipped in North India.

6. P.C. Roy Choudhary,
Jainism in Bihar, Patna, 1956, p. 46. A Photograph of the 2.25 meters high
image has been reproduced in a plate facing p. 56 of this book.The caption there says that it is the image
of Bahubali. This does not appear to be correct. Bahubali has creepers entwining his legs.There are no creepers in this image.The Lotus symbol on the pedestal shows that
the image is either of the Tirthankara Padmaprabhanatha whose symbol is
Red Lotus or of the Tirthankara Naminatha whose symbol is Blue
Lotus.So far as is known, Bahubali is
not worshipped in North India.

7. Select Inscriptions, p.
213.

8. `Arhant' is the term for
saints both in Jainism and Buddhism.The reference here is clearly to the Jain saints, for the Jain
formula of Namokkara or nokara is:

Namo arihantam

namo sidhanam

Namo ayariyanam

namo uvajhayanam

Namo lo-e savva sahunam.

The Buddhist formula of vandana
in the Petakoppadesa is:

Namo
SammasambuddhanamParamthadassinam

Shiladiguna-para-mippattanam.

9. This line in the
inscription has been read by Jayaswas as "Nandaraja-nitam ca
kalinga-Jinam sannivesa..., B.M. Barua, on the other hand reads here Nandaraja-jitan
ca Kalingajanasan (n)i(ve)sam......(Indian Historical Quarterly, Vol.XIV, p.468.)He translates the
relevant passage as "...and compelled Brihaspatimitra, the king of the Magadh
people, to bow down at his feet, (did something in connection with) the
settlements of the Kalinga people subjugated by the king Nanda,...... carried
the wealth......"Barua's reading
would thus demolish the theory of the Kalinga-Jina' completely.

16. Though the year Shaka 388
(AD 466-67) is clearly mentioned in this inscription, the writing is of the 8th
or 9th century.From this it has been
conjectured that it is a forged document.It is likely, however, that it is the copy of a 5th century document.(A. K. Chatterjee, A Comprehensive History
of Jainism, pp. 137- 38 and 324).

26. Hemchandra mentions
nothing about Dasharath, another grandson of Ashoka.That Dasharath was a historical person is proved from his three
inscriptions bestowing on the Ajivika sect some caves in the Nagarjuni hills
(Gaya district).Dasharath perhaps
ruled over the eastern part of the Empire.

27. Different Puranas give
different versions of the lists of kings.Thus Vishnu Purana says that after the reign of Andhra-Bhrityas, there
would be seven Abhira and ten Gardhabhila kings who would be followed by
sixteen Shaka kings (Vishnu-Purana, Part IV, Ch. 24, SL. 51-52).

28. Winternitz, op. Cit., p.
589.

29. Papers on the Date of
Kuniska, Leiden, 1968, pp. ix, 150-154.

30. This number in the
bracket is the inscription number in the Jain-Shila-lekhaSangraha,
Vol. II.

31. Hiven Tsang, when he
passed through Mathura in the seventh century mentioned, that there were good
numbers of Buddhist stupas in Mathura."One of them built by the venerable Upagupta was on a hill, the
sides of which have been excavated to allow the construction of cells. The
approach is by a ravine."Hiuen
Tsang's description has been doubted on the basis that there are no hills near
about Mathura, Growse has suggested."Upagupta's stupa may well have formed the raised center of the
Kankali-tilla."(F. S. Growse,
Mathura, a District Memoir, 2nd Ed.Allahabad, 1880, p. 110).Cunningham (1871) gave a description of the Kankali-tila `hill' the
higher portion of which at that time "had been repeatedly burrowed for
bricks:”The "mound (was) 400 feet
in length from west to east, and nearly 300 feet in breadth, with a mean height
of 10 or 12 feet above the field.At
the eastern end it (rose) to a height of 25 feet with a breadth of 60 feet at
top, and about 150 feet at base.Kankali-tila contains without exception pure Jain Monuments”
Archaeological Survey of India, report 3, 1983, P. 19).It appears, therefore, that either Growse's
conjecture that Kankali- tila was formally in Buddhist possession is wrong, and
thus it was not this place which Hiuen-Tsang had visited; or if Growse is
correct then the Jains had in later days i.e. after the visit of Hiuen
Tsang removed all Buddhist remains from Kankali-tila.

34. Negamesa or Harinegamesi
was the God who under the orders of Shakra removed the embryo of Mahavira from
the womb of Devandanda to that of Trishala: (Kalpa Sutra, in S. B. E.,
Vol. XXII, p. 229).

35. In Jain Shilalekha
Saringraha, Vol. II, this profession is not mentioned.Luders, however, reads the word as "Ka
(r) ppas (i) kasya", as the profession of the donor's
husband.(Luders, Mathura Inscriptions,
pp. 46- 47).

36. J. Prasad, Jain
Sources of the History of India, p. 101.

37. Shrivatsa in the
earlier images is generally a vertical line with an S- shaped mark on its left,
and its mirror image on the right.Later the symbol changed into a lozenge shaped four-petalled
flower.In Hinduism it represents
"Shri" the Goddess of fortune.It is the special mark of Vishnu.In Jainism Shrivatsa is found on the
chests of Tirthankaras all over Northern India but not in South India.
The symbol appears sometimes on the images of the Buddha also, but not on the
chest. (C. Siva Ram Murti in Ancient India, No.6, pp. 44-46).

38. See Appendix IV.

39. Corpus Inscriptionum
Indicarum, Vol. III, No. 15.

The Schisms

The First Seven Schisms

The Main schism of the Jain Church was the one
between the Svetambaras and the Digambaras.The Svetambaras believe that even
before this schism, there had been seven other schisms.These schisms had started when certain
important leaders of the Church had disagreed with the views of the Main Church
on some points of philosophy or ritual. These leaders had then taken away their
followers and established what one might call separate sects.However, these schisms had little permanent
effects, for the newly formed sects had either disappeared or had joined the
main Church again on the death of their leaders.The seven schisms have been all described together in AvashyakaNiryukti, VIII, 56-100.(The Digambaras
do not know of these seven schisms at all.)

The first of these schisms, as we have already seen,
happened during the life of Mahavira himself.Its leader was his own son-in-law Jamali.Jamali broke away with his followers from Mahavira fourteen years
after the latter had attained omniscience.The point on which Jamali differed from Mahavira would appear to an
outsider to be a mere quibble.

The second schism was started by Tissagutta in
Rajagriha.This happened also during
the life time of Mahavira and only two years after Jamali's schism.
Tissagutta's followers were called Jivapaesiyas.They controverted Mahavira's view that the
soul is permeated in all the atoms of the body.

The third schism was led by Asadha at Seyaviya, 214 years
after the death of Mahavira.Asadha's
followers were called Avattiyas, and they held that there was no
difference between Gods, saints, kings and other beings.

The fourth schism was started by Assamitta in Mihila 220
years after Mahavira's death.Assamitta
was a disciple of Kidinna who was a disciple of Mahagiri.Assamitta's followers were called
Samuchchheiyas and they held that after the end of all life will come one day,
the effects of good or bad deeds are immaterial.

The fifth schism was started by Ganga at
Kullakatiriya, 228 years after the death of Mahavira.Ganga was a disciple of Dhanagutta, another disciple of
Mahagiri.His followers were called
Dokiriyas, and they held that two opposite feelings such as cold and warmth
could be experienced at the same time.

The sixth schism arose in Antaranjiya and was started by
Sadulaya, otherwise known as Rohagutta, 544 years 1 after the death
of Mahavira.Sadulaya is said to have
been the author of the Vaisheshika Sutras.His followers were called Terasiyas and they held that
between life (Jiva) and non-life (Aliv), there is a third state
`no-Jiva'.According to the Kalpa-Sutra,
the Terasiya sect was founded by Rohagutta a disciple of Mahagiri. 2

The seventh schism was led by Gotthamahila at Dashapura,
584 years after Mahavira's death.His
followers were called Abaddhiyas and they asserted that Jiva was
not bounded by karma.

No trace of these seven schisms is now left in the Jain
religion.

The Eighth Schism --- Digambaras
and Svetambaras

The Jain community is divided into two sects Digambara
and Shvetambara.Both the sects
have exactly the same religious and philosophical beliefs and practically the
same mythology.The only noticeable
difference in the mythology of the two sects is regarding the sex of the
nineteenth Tirthankara Mali.The
Svetambaras believe that Mali was a woman, while Digambaras think
that Mali was a man.This difference of
opinion about Mali arises out of the few differences in the beliefs of the two
sects.The Digambaras think that
it is not possible for a woman to achieve salvation, and as all Tirthankaras
do achieve salvation, the nineteenth Tirthankara could not have been a
woman.Another difference between the
two sects is that the Digambaras think that all Jain ascetics
should follow the example of Mahavira and remain nude, while the Svetambaras
think that the practice of remaining nude known as JinaKalpa was given
up by the great teachers of the church within a few generations after Mahavira
(i.e. after Jambu) and they had started wearing white garments.This practice was known as sthaviraKalpa.the present-day ascetics according to the Svetambaras
need follow only these great teachers (sthaviras), and it was necessary
to practice the JinaKalpa. The third point on which the two sects differ
is regarding the food of the kevali (omniscient).The Digambaras maintain that a kevali
does not need any intake of food, while the Svetambaras think that they
do.The point is academic, for both the
sects are unanimous that nobody is going to become a Kevali in the
foreseeable future.

Digambaras also deny two of the Shvetambara
beliefs about Mahavira, viz., that Mahavira's embryo was taken from the womb of
the Brahman woman Devananda and transferred to the womb of Trishala, and
also that Mahavira had married and had a daughter.(Other minor differences between these two communities are given
later).

It will be noticed that these and similar other
differences are of a minor nature and do not affect the main tenets of the
religion which were essentially same for both the sects.On theother hand, these differences minor though they might be, have cleaved
the Jain community into two distinct groups with practically no
inter-mixing on the religious or even social plane; for even inter-marriage
between the two sects is not ordinarily permissible.This was because the two communities have necessarily their own
temples, the Digambaras having the images of the Tirthankaras
nude, and the Svetambaras clothed.The monks or ascetics who are the religious leaders of the sects are
similarly nude, and clothed in white respectively.Also, due to some reasons mentioned later, the Digambaras
refuse to recognize the canonical books of the Svetambaras, and have
their own texts.

Thus we see that the two sects both swearing allegiance
to Mahavira and his teachings, behave in their practical religious life as two
different societies.How a community
with the same religious philosophy started behaving at some point of time as
two distinct communities is not clearly known.The early religious literature of both the sects is practically silent
on this point.It is thus possible to
conjecture that the Church was undivided in the beginning, the more orthodox
ones among the monks practicing nudity (JinaKalpa), and the others not
discarding clothes (sthaviraKalpa).Indeed we have in the Parishishtaparvam of the Shvetambara
polymath Hemchandra, the narration that during the time of king Samparti in
Ujjaini, the Church had two leaders Mahagiri and Suhastin.After some time "Mahagiri made over his
disciples to Suhastin and lived as a Jinakalpika, though Jinakalps
had by that time fallen into disuse". 3 Thus perhaps while nudity was optional in the
beginning, it became later the fixed manner of all those who adopted it,
considering it to be the orthodox way of Jainism. The separation of the Digambaras
and Svetambaras according to this thinking was thus a gradual process,
and there was no point of time when there was any actual schism.This appears to be a plausible theory.

A slight modification of this theory would be that
Hemchandra was wrong, and the jinkalpika was never given up. One group
of Jain ascetics continued to practice it throughout, and this group was
later called Digambara.The
Great scholar of Jainism Hoernle has argued in his essay on the Ajivikas
in the Encyclopedia of religion and Ethics, that originally the Digambaras
were those Ajivikas who were unhappy at the behavior of their leaders Makkhali
Goshala at the time of his death.After
leaving his sect they had joined Mahavira and had become the latter’s
followers.Thus the Digambaras
as a group were separate from the time of Mahavira himself.Hoernle's conjecture is based mainly on two
grounds.Firstly, not only did the
Ajivikas practice strict nudity (they were achelakas), but also a few of
their other customs resembled those of the Digambara monks to some
extent.On this latter point Hoernle
has cited some instances which do not seem to be borne out by facts.For instance,Hoernle says that Ajivikas used to carry a stick (ekadandi),
and so do the Digambara monks now-a-days.As a matter of fact, it is the Shvetambara monk who may
carry a stick, and not a Kigambara monk who can have practically no earthly
possession.The second point on which
Hoernle bases his arguments is that many ancient authors and lexicographers
have confused the Ajivikas with the Digambaras.A. L. Basham in his Ajivikas4
has shown that Hoernle has mis-read most of these ancient authorities, and
there was no such confusion in them as Hoernle alleges.But Basham fails to explain one comment of
the Shvetambara Pandit Shilanka (9th century).In his commentary on the SutrakritAnga, speaking
about those ascetics who revile the followers of Mahavira, Shilanka said that
these revelers were the Ajivikas or the Digambaras.5Is it possible that such a learned Jain
author as Shilanka would by mistake equate Ajivikas with the Digambaras?It is possible to think with Hoernle that
Shilanka really thought that the Ajivikas were the same as Digambaras.The bulk of the evidence however, is against
Hoernle's conjecture, and the theory that some Ajivikas formed the nucleus of
the Digambara sect cannot be built upon this one stray reference by
Shilanka.

(In the same commentary Shilanka makes another enigmatic
reference6 to the Ajivikas.This time he equates the followers of Goshala (i.e. the Ajivikas)
with the Terasiyas the followers of Rohagutta, the leader of the sixth schism
of the Jain Church).

The Jains themselves both Svetambaras and Digambaras
have their own versions as to how the schism between them occurred.These appear in their later books composed
long after the alleged occurrences.As
stated earlier these are mere legends and cannot be verified as history.The Shvetambara version is given in Avashyakabhashya
a work of about 500 ADThe legend is as
follows:

There was a person called Shivabhuti who had founded a
sect called the Bodiya in the city of Rathavirapura.The occasion for doing this arose in this manner:

Shivabhuti had won many battles for his king, and the
latter showered honors on him.Naturally, Shivabhuti became very proud and used to return home late at
night.His mother on the complaint of
her daughter-in-law refused to open the door one night, and asked him to go to
any place the door of which he was likely to find open.Getting wild Shivabhuti entered such a place
that, however, turned out to be monastery.He asked the head priest to initiate him but the priest refused to do
so, where upon Shivabhuti himself plucked out his hair and wandered as a monk.

After some time this self-initiated monk Shivabhuti
happened to come to the same place.The
king, his former friend came to know of his arrival, and sent him a costly
garment (ratnakambala) as a gift.

Shivabhuti's superior protested and disallowed him to use
such a garment.When Shivabhuti did not
listen to his advice the teacher tore off that garment and used it as a
mattress.Getting wild and excited
Shivabhuti gave up all clothing.

(A slightly different version of this says that the
occasion for it arose when once, his teacher, expounding the texts to a class,
came up against the following, alluding to a special stage of JinaKalpa.)

"Jinakalpia ya...... ... ......duviha".It meant that Jinakalpias were of two
kinds.Some of them might have the
necessary requisites, and others not.On hearing it Shivabhuti asked his teacher, “While there is the system
of JinaKalpa, why should there be the bondage of clothes?A monk following JinaKalpa and living
in solitude should follow the principles of austerity, including
nudity".The teacher tried to
bring him round, but Shivabhuti would not be persuaded, and gave up all
clothing.He thus created a schism in
the community.

His sister Uttara also followed him and she also became
naked.But when the courtesans of the
city complained that nobody would go to them seeing the ugly nature of the
female body, Shivabhuti disallowed his sister to accept nudity. Thus nudity was
started by the Bodiyas under Shivabhuti.The Bodiyas presumably werelater called the Digambaras.This, the eighth schism according to the Svetambaras occurred in
609 AV. or AD 83.

The Digambara version of how the Svetambaras
broke away from the main Church that the Digambaras call the Mulasangha
is completely different.It was also
recorded much later. The first record is found in Harisena's Brihatkathakosa of
AD 931.This is as follows:

In the reign of Chandragupta Maurya, Bhadrabahu
had predicted a terrible famine in the country of Magadh, for a period
of 12 years.Hence a part of the
community emigrated to South India under his leadership, while the rest
remained in Magadh.

When after some time the leaders met together in
Ujjayini, the famine was still there, and hence they allowed the monks to wear
a piece of cloth (ardhaphalaka) to hide shame while on the begging
tour.But even when the famine was over
these monks refused to give up the use of the piece of cloth.The conservative elements protested against
this. And thus these Ardhaphalakas proved to be the forerunner of the Shvetambara
sect.

The final separation came later due to Chandraledha,
queen of king Lokapala of Valabhipura.It is related that these Ardhaphalaka monks were invited by her; but
seeing them neither clothed nor naked, the king was disappointed, and the
queen, therefore, asked them to dress completely. Thenceforth the Ardhaphalakas
began to put on white clothes and came to be called Shvetapatas.This happened in AD 80.

(There is a reference to a Shvetapata community in
a grant issued in his fourth regnal year by the Kadamba king Mrigeshavarma, (AD
475-490).The grant of a village was
made to a community of Jains living in the city of Vaijayanti.The Village was divided into three shares,
the first to the holy Arhat, the second to the eminent ascetics called Shvetapatas,
who were intent on practicing the true religion (Sad-dharma), and
the third for the eminent ascetics called Nirgranthas.Thus the Shvetapatas and Nirganthas
in this city in Karnataka were worshipping the same image of Arhat in a
temple.Whether the Shvetapatas
referred to in the inscription and the Shvetapatas sect referred to in the
above Digambara legend were the same is not known).

There is a serious weakness in this Digambara
version: It is not supported by the earliest Digambara epigraph that
mentions this famine.This epigraph, at
Shravana Belgola, says that Bhadrabahu had predicted the famine in Ujjayini and
not in Magadh,moreover he
himself is not recorded to have accompanied the community to South India.Thus there are contradictions in the Digambara
versions.On the other hand the Shvetambara
version as to how the Church split into two is a bit too puerile for such an
important event.It appears that all
these stories were invented long after the actual split which in the beginning
must have been a gradual process that was completed some time at the end of the
5th century. We do not know when actually the two sects finally separated but
we have epigraphic records to prove that even in the 3rd century AD the
difference, if any, within the community was not sharp.The images found at Kankali-tila
in Mathura belong to this period.They
depict the Tirthankaras in a nude state.Yet the donors of these images presumably belonged to the Shvetambara
sect for the Shakhas and Ganas to which they belonged are the
same as those which are mentioned in the ShvetambaraKalpa Sutra.Moreover it appears from a few of the
inscriptions that some of the donors were nuns or the disciples of nuns.Thus though the images were in the Digambara
style the worshipers did not observe the Digambara orthodoxy about
disallowing women to become nuns.The
exact dates of the Mathura inscriptions cannot be determined.They are dated in the Kusana era and the
dates mentioned are from 5 to 98 of this era.However, the controversy as the when the Dusana era started is
not yet over, and if we go by the date suggested by R. C. Majumdar then this
era started in AD 244, and, therefore, the Mathura Jain inscriptions
belong to a period from the middle of the 3rd century to the middle of the 4th
century.Similarly, the other Tirthankara
images of this period found in northern India are also nude.The Inscription8 of Kahum in the
Gorakhpur district refers to the installation of five images of
Adikartris.This inscription is dated
AD 460.The images found here are nude.The conclusion would be that the difference
in beliefs of the two sects, if they had at all parted company by that time,
was not up to then clear-cut and both of the sects worshipped nude images.

The actual parting of the ways perhaps came some time
near the middle of the 5th century, when the Valabhi Council was held.It is said that the canon of the Svetambaras
had been reduced to a state of disorder and was even in danger of being lost
altogether.Hence in the year 980 (or
993) after the death of Mahavira (i.e. about the middle of the 5th century AD),
a Council was held in Valabhi in Gujarat, presided over by Devarddhi
Ksahmashramna the head of the shool, for the purpose of collecting the texts
and writing them down.The twelfth Anga
containing the Purvas, had already gone astray at that time.This is why we find only eleven Angas
in the recension which has come down to us, and which is supposed to be
identical with that of Devarddhi.

The Digambaras completely deny the authority of
the texts collected by this council.They say that not only was the knowledge of the 14 Purvas lost at
an early period, but that 436 years after Mahavira's Nirvana the last
person who knew all the 11 Angas had died.The teachers who succeeded him knew all the 11 Angas had
died.The teachers who succeeded him
knew less and less Angas as time went on, until the knowledge of these
works was completely lost 683 years after Mahavira's Nirvana.Thus the Valabhi Council marks the final
split between the Svetambaras and Digambaras.

There is some iconographic evidence that supports the
theory that it was the period of the Valabhi council when the two sects
actually parted company.As stated
earlier all the Tirthankara images found at Mathura and datable up to
the Kusana period depict the Tirthankaras either in the standing
position and nude, or, if seated, in the crossed legged position, are
sculptured in such a way that neither garments, nor genitals are visible.Thus up to the Kusana period both the sects
worshipped nude images.The earliest
known image of a Tirthankara with a lower garment, is a standing
Rishabhnatha discovered at Akota in Gujarat.The date of his image has been fixed at the later part of the fifth
century.9 This was shortly after the period of the Valabhi Council.

The geographical distribution of the two sects also would
give some support to the theory that the Valabhi Council was the chief reason
of the schism.It is found that the
main concentration of the Svetambaras is round about and within 500
kilometers of Valabhi. Most of the Jains in Gujarat, and western
Rajasthan are Svetambaras, while most of the Jains of eastern
Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and the Jains of South India are Digambaras.

It is possible that so far as the Jains of
Northern India were concerned, they might have had a Council of their own at
Mathura.Its president was
Skandila.This name does not occur in
the list of Sthaviras of the Kalpa-Sutra, but the name of
Shandilya occurs 33rd in the list.Jacobi remarks10 in this connection:"I think Shandilya is the same as
Skandila, who was president of the Council of Mathura, which seems to have been
the rival of that in Valabhi."

In other words, those who accepted the literature edited
and collected at Valabhi as canonical were later called Svetambaras, and
those whom either had their own Council at Mathura, or did not have any Council
at all, as in South India, were later called Digambaras.

The Digambaras of South India, long before the
time the Valabhi Council of the Svetambaras had met, had started
developing their own sacred literature.They had to do this because according to them the last of the acharyas
who knew even a part of the Angas had died 683 years after the death of
Mahavira.The Name of this acharya
was Bhutavali.Nobody was left who knew
even a part of the original canon.The
next pontiff according to some Digambara lists was Bhadrabahu II.Kundakunda who claimed to be a disciple of
this Bhadrabahu, therefore, started writing the sacred books for the Digambaras.He is said to have written altogether 84
such books.The names of all the works
composed by Kundakunda are not known.But three of his works, viz., Samayasara, Pravachanasara,
and Panchastikayasara are considered so important by the Digambaras that
together they are called Prabhritatraya or Saratraya, a name that
reminds one of the Prasthanatraya of the Vedantists. Indeed Kundakunda
is considered so important a personality in the Digambara hagiology that a
popular Digambara benedictory runs thus:

MAngalamBhagavanaViro, mAngalamGautamogani,

MAngalamKundakundyadyau, JaindharmostumAngalam.

To the Digambaras thus
Kundakunda is as important a teacher as Sudharma is to the Svetambaras.

Kundakunda was followed by many other Digambara
writers such as Vattakera, Kartikeya Svamin, etc.Practically all these authors belonged to South India.Thus by the early centuries of the Christian
era while the intellectual center of the Svetambaras was developing in
western India, the Digambaras had their own intellectual center in
south-west Karanataka.Perhaps this
geographical separation of the intellectual centers was the main reason why the
two sections of the Jains drifted.The Digambaras had their own intellectual center in south-west Karanataka.Perhaps this Geographical separation of the
intellectual centers was the main reason why the two sections of the Jains
drifted.To some extent even the Gods
began to differ:The Digambaras
in south-west Karnataka made Bahubali, a son of the first Tirthankara,
one of the most important deities and built colossal statues for him. Bahubali
on the other hand is scarcely, if at all, mentioned in the Shvetambara
mythology.

The Digambaras called their Church, the MulaSangha or the Main Church.The
Mula Sangha is then said to have branched off into Nandi, Sinha, etc.But all Digambaras to whatever gaccha
(sub-sect) they might belong, claim the descent of their gaccha
ultimately from the MulaSangha.

In the few centuries of the Christen era, the dominant
sect among the Jains of the Deccan and South India were the Digambaras.
Only one inscription - a grant - has been found in these parts of India, which
refers to the Shvetapatas (Svetambaras) by name.This is the Devagiri (Dharwar district)inscription11 of king
Mrigeshavarmana referred to earlier.His period according to Saletore­12 was AD 475-490.

The difference between the Svetambaras and the Digambaras

The total number of points by which the Digambaras
differ from the Svetambaras are eighteen. These are listed below:

The Digambaras do not accept the following Shvetambara
beliefs:

1.A kevali needs food;

2.A kevali needs to evacuate (nihara);

3. The
women can get salvation.(In order to
get salvation a woman has according to the Digambaras to be born again
as a man).

4.The Shudras can get salvation;

5.A person can get salvation without forsaking
clothes;

6.A house holder can get salvation;

7. The
worship of images having clothes and ornaments is permitted;

8. The
monks are allowed to possess fourteen (specified ) things;

9. The Tirthankara
Mali was a woman;

10. The
eleven of the 12 original Angas (Canonical works) still exist;

11.
Bharat Chakravarti attained kevali hood while living in his
palace;

12. A
monk may accept food from a Shudra;

13. The
Mahavira's embryo was transferred from one womb to another; and Mahavira's
mother had fourteen auspicious dreams before he was born.The Digambaras believe that she had
actually 16 such dreams;

14.
Mahavira had a sickness due to the tejolesya of Goshala.

15.
Mahavira had married and had a daughter.

16. A
cloth offered by the Gods (devadusya) fell on the shoulders of a Tirthankara.

17.
Marudevi went for her salvation riding an elephant;

18. A
monk may accept alms from many houses.

REFERENCES

1. For a discussion on the
dates of these Schisms, see at the end of Chapter V.

2. Sacred Books of the East
Vol. XXII, p.290.

3. Parishishtaparvam,
Canto XI, SL. 1-4.

4.The Ajivikas, London, 1951.

5.Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XLV, p. 267n.

6. Sacred Books of the East,
Vol. XLV, p. 245n.

7. Saletore, Medieval
Jainism, p. 32.

8. Inscription No. 15 in
Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Vol. III.

9. Encylopedia Britannica,
15th Edn., Vol. 10, p.8.

10. Sacred Books of the East,
Vol. XXII, p. 294n.

11. Jain Shila Lekha
Sangraha, Vol. II, pp. 69-72.

12. Medieval Jainism, p. 32.

History of the Digambaras

The history of the Digambara Church after Mahavira
can generally be divided into four periods.These periods differ from one another not because each of them
necessarily had any special characteristic, but mainly because each of the
preceding period from the last is shrouded in more and more obscurity, with the
result that we know practically nothing substantial about the first of these
four periods, know a little more about the second, and so on.These periods are as follows:

a) The first five or six centuries after Mahavira. i.e. the
period between Mahavira and the beginning of the Christian era.

b) The eight centuries from the beginning of the Christian
era.This may be called the period of
the Acharyas.

c) The period of the dominance of Bhattarakas, i.e. up
to the 17th/18th century.

d) The period of reformation - 17th/18th century to the
present day.

The First Six centuries

As stated above, the first five or six centuries in the
history of the Digambara sect are hidden in obscurity.We know almost nothing about the history of
this sect as a separate Jain Church in these centuries. (The reason most
probably was that the two Churches had not till then separated, and as such
they had no separate history.)The Digambaras
unlike the Svetambaras have not written any history of their sect, and
all that we have are some lists of successive patriarchs.Not much reliance can be placed on these
lists for they were compiled many centuries later.In fact the first list that we possess is the one inscribed in
Sravana Belgola in about AD 600, that is almost eleven centuries after
Mahavira. This Sravana-Belgola succession list is as follows:Mahavira-Gautama-Lohacharya-Jambu-
Vishnudeva- Aparajita- Govardhana-Bhadrabahu- Vishakha- Prosthila - Karttikarya
(Kshattrikarya)-Jaya- Nama (Naga)- Siddhartha- Dhritisena- Buddhila, etc.

It will be noticed that the difference with the Shvetambara
list starts almost from the very beginning.The name of Gautama as successor of Mahavira is not mentioned in the Shvetambara
list as given in the Kalpa-Sutra.In fact the Kalpa Sutra explicitly mentions that only two Ganadharas,Indrabhuti and Sudharma, survived Mahavira,
and it was Sudharma who succeeded Mahavira as head of the Church and no other Ganadhara
left any spiritual descendants.Indrabhuti
who was a Gautama by gotra is the person mentioned in the Digambara
list as the first successor of Mahavira.Both the sects are in agreement in asserting that Indrabhuti Gautama was
a kevalin, but the Svetambaras deny that he ever headed the
Church, or left any disciples.

The confusion is carried on to the next name also.Many Digambara lists including the
Sravana Belgola inscription say that Gautama's successor as the head of the
Church was Lohacharya.The name
Lohacharya is not known to the Svetambaras.Other Digamabara lists (e.g. the one in the HarivanshaPurana)
mention Sudharma as the successorof
Gautama.Fortunately,Lohacharya and Sudharma are the names of the
same person.This is explicitly stated
in JambuddvitaPannati
(I. 10).

In the Digambara list Lohacharya's and in
the Shvetambara list Sudharma's successor is Jambusvami.Here for the first and last time the Digambara
and Shvetambara lists agree in regard to the order of succession.

(Digambaras and Svetambaras both agree that
after Mahavira, only three persons, namely, Gautama, Sudharma and Jambu became kevalins.)

The next three names in the Sravana Belgola list (AD 600)
are Vishnudeva, Aparajita and Govardhana.Later Digambara works such as the HarivanshiPurana
(late 8th century) include the name of Nandimitra between Vishnudeva and
Aparajita.The present day Digambaras
accept this later list of four names.However, none of these names are known to the Svetambaras.They have instead the following three
names:Prabhava, Shayyambna (or
Shayyambhava) and Yashobhadra.

Shayyambhava as we have seen was the author of the Dashavaikalika,
one of the most important texts of the Svetambaras, but the Digambaras
neither know his name, nor recognize the book.

The successor of Govardhana in the Digambara list
is Bhadrabahu.In the Shvetambara
list, the corresponding placeis
occupied by two persons:Bhadrabahu and
Sambhutavijaya who were joint patriarchs of the Church.Bhadrabahu is an important name for the Digambaras.It was Bhadrabahu who had according to the
Sravana Belgola inscription (AD 600) had predicted a famine in Ujjayinai which
led the Jain community there to leave for South India under the
leadership of one Prabhachandra (or, according to the later versions, he
himself led the Jain community (of Magadh?) to South India). The
difficulty can be solved if we accept that it was another Bhadrabahu who had
taken the community there. This second Bhadrabahu appears as the 27th acharya
in the Digambara list (the Svetambaras do not know him) and was
an Upangi i.e. knower of one Anga only, and not a Shrutakevalilike Bhadrabahu I, who knew all the 12 Angas.Bhadrabahu II died 515 years after the Nirvana
(i.e. in 12 BC) and we know that he belonged to South India, for the great
Kundakunda who undoubtedly belonged to South India calls himself the pupil of
Bhadrabahu.1

The matter is slightly confusing here for according to
the pattavalis of the Digambaras, Kundakunda was not the first
but the fourth acharya after Bhandabahu II.The actual list is as follows:1, Bhadrabah II.2.Guptigupta.3. Maghanandi.4.Jinacandra I.5.Kundakunda.

Perhaps the solution of this problem is that all these
four persons from Guptigupta to Kundakunda were pupils of Bhadrabahu II, and
became acahryas one after another.

Now to go back to Bhadrabahu I, he was as we know the
last Shrutakevali.The acharyas
who came after him were dashapurvis that is, they knew the 11 Angas
and the 10 Purvas. Their names were:

1.Visakha

2 Prosthila

3.Kshatria

4. Jayasena

5, Nagasena

6.Siddhartha

7. Dhritisena

8.Vijaya

9.Buddhilinga

10.Deva I

11.Dharasena.

Except for their names we
know nothing about them.

They were followed by ekadashangis, who knew only
the eleven Angas.Their names
were:

1. Nakshatri

2.Jayapalaka

3.Pandava

4.Dhruvasena and

5.Kansa.

Then came the upangis, who knew only one Anga.They were

1.Subhadra

2.Yashobhadra

3.Bhadrabahu II and

4. Lohacarya II.

Lastly there were the ekangis.They had only fragmentary knowledge of the
canon.Their names were:

1. Arhadvali

2.Maghanandi

3.Dharasena

4.Pushpadanta and

5. Bhutavali.

It is from the period of the ekangis, that is , Arhadvali,
Maghanandi, Kharasena, Pushpadanta and Bhutavali onwards that we get some
material facts about the Digambaraacharyas. All these five were
perhaps the disciples of Bhadrabahu II.

It is said that it was Arhadvali who had divided the
Original Church (the MulaSangha) into four different sanghas,
namely, Sinha, Nandi, Sena and Deva."This we learn from the inscriptions dated 1398 and 1432,
and from the Nitisara composed by Indranandin between 1524 and 1565 and
from the pattavalis of the last century."2It is, of course, not possible to say
whether this story of Arhadvali dividing the Mula Sangha into four branches
is correct or not.None of these
branches exist, and even the first mention of this division is almost thirteen
hundredyears after the alleged event.

It is said that Dharasena, the third among the ekangis
named above was the last master3 of the AstangaMahanimittathe "eightfold Mahanimittas."What these Mahanimitta were, is not
clear, but they seem to have something to do with astrology or clairvoyance,
for it was with this power that Bhadrabahu had predicted the 12 year famine in
Ujjayini as we know from the Sravana Belgola inscription (AD 600): "Bhadrabahu-svaminaUjjayinyam astanga-mahanimitta-tatvajnena-trailokya- darshina, nimittena dvadasha samvatshara-kalavaisamyam uplabhya." (By
Bhadrabahu-svamin, who possessed the knowledge of the Eight Mahanimittas,
the seer of the past, present and future, was foretold by the signs a dire
calamity in Ujjayini, lasting for a period of 12 years).

Dharasena also had a partial knowledge of the canonical
works like the Angas, Purvas, etc. According to the legend,
Dharasena lived in Girnar Saurastra.He
sent a message to the Digambaras of South India warning them against the
disappearance of the knowledge of the canons.The monks of Dakshinpatha then sent two intelligent persons to
Dharasena. Dharasena passed on his knowledge to these two persons whose names
were Pushpa Danta and Bhutavali.These
two then returned home and wrote an important work Shat-Khandagama-Sutra based on that teaching.This work thus is revered among the Digambaras
almost as a canonical work.4The
work was completed on the fifth of the bright fortnight of Jyestha:and that day is thus celebrated every year
as Shruta-panchami.

The Period of the Acharyas

Kundakunda

Evidence either literary or in stone inscriptions about
the existence of Jainism in South India before the Christian era has not been
found.However, we can by inference
presume the existence of the Jains at that time in Karnataka.
Kundakunda, the great acharya and prolific writer of books on Jainism
was living in the first century AD5It is quite inconceivable that such a writer could have flourished
unless there was an old tradition of Jains in that area, there must have
been enough well read Jains in south Karnataka to provide a readership
for Kundakunda's works. Moreover, Kundakunda wrote in Prakrit (which was
akin to Shauraseni6i.e., the language of the Mathura region) and this would be a
language quite unfamiliar to the local people other than the learned among the Jains.

As we have seen, it was Kundakunda who provided some of
the philosophical texts of the Digambara Church.In fact he is venerated7 almost
as a Ganadhara, that is as if he was as knowledgeable as one of the
immediate disciples of Mahavira. As time passed he gained in miraculous powers,
and in an inscription8 at Sravana-Belgola dated AD 1398, it is said
that when Kundakunda walked his feet would be four fingers above the ground.

Many places claim Kundakunda as their own. There is a village
called Konda Kumda or Konka Kunda 9 few kilometers from the
Guntakkal railway station (that is, practically on the borders of the Andhra
and Karnataka states), and this village is said to have been the place where he
was born. This would substantiate the claim that Kundakunda belonged to
Karnataka. On the other hand it has also been suggested that he lived in
Kanchi, because his place of work was said to have been in that area.

In fact, there is also some difficulty about his exact name.He is said to have had the following names:
Vakragriva, Elacarya Gridhrapincha, Padmanandi and Kundakunda, but so far as
the first four names are concerned, there have been other ancient Jain
authors with the same or similar names in the later centuries.Thus it will be safer to call him by the
name of Kundakunda only.

Umaswami or Umasvati

The most celebrated acharya
among the Digambaras after Kundakunda was Umasvami. In the South Indian
inscriptions he is mentioned immediately after Kundakunda, l0 which
implies that he was a disciple of Kundakunda. Umasvami had the epithet
Gridhrapincha or Gridhrapiccha, “ Vulture's feather”, which Kundakunda had too.
According to most of the Digambarapattavalis, he lived from about
AD 135 to 219.

The Svetambaras on the
other hand think that his name was Umasvati. He was so called because his
mother's name was Uma Vatsi, and his father's Svati.1I The name of
his teacher was Ghosanandi Kshamashramna. About his period the Shvetambara
traditions differ, but in any case none of them is in agreement with the Digambara
tradition.

It is not certain that he
belonged to South India, for he wrote his great work Taftvarthadhigama-Sutra
"the Manual for the Understanding of the True Nature of Things" in
Pataliputra. This manual in Sanskrit is recognized as an authority by
both Digambaras and Svetambaras.Winternitz wrote, “Even at the present day (this work) is read by all Jains
in private houses and temples. By reading this book once though one is said to
acquire as much merit as by fasting for one day. The logic psychology,
cosmography, ontology and ethics of the Jain, are treated in these Sutras
and in the commentary appended by the author himself, in the closest possible
agreement with the Canon, more specially with Anga VI (Jnatadharmakathah).Even today it may still serve as an
excellent summary of Jains dogmatic. It is true that the commentary,
which expresses views that are not in harmony with those of the Digambaras
is not recognized by this sect as the work of Umasvami. It is doubtful,
therefore, whether the Digambaras are justified in claiming him as one
of their own.”12 However, Umasvami is an important writer for the Digambaras.
They honour him as an equal of the Shrutakeavlins of old (Shrutkevaldesya)and would not like to SUI render him to the
Svetambaras.13 The Svetambaras also greatly respect
Umasvati, and give him the epithets puravit knower of ancient texts and vacakaearya
"master reciter".

Umasvami or Umasvali is said
to have been a prolific writer and said to have written about 500 books. Very
few of these are known today. The Digambars think that the 14 Pujaprakarna
Prasamarati, and Jambudvipasamasa are his works.

Among the early commentators
of Umasvami's Tatvartha- dhigama-Sutra was Siddhasena Divakara. He too
like Umasvami is regarded by both Digambaras and Svetambaras as
one of their own.14 He is perhaps the last acharya to be
claimed by both the scats. However, his name does not appear in the Digambaraspattavalis of south India).

Samantabhadra

According to a pattavalli
given in an inscription of 1163 AD at Sravana Belgola, Umasvati's disciple was
Balakapiccha, and his disciple was Samantabhadra. He is also styled 'Svami'
and referred to with reverence by later acharyas. Digambaras
place the period in which he flourished as between AD 120 and 185.15 Samantabhadra
was definitely a Digambara. He wrote among other books, a commentary of
Umasvami's Tattvartha DhigamaSutra.The main part of the commentary is no longer extant but the introductory
part of the commentary exists.It is
known as Devagama-Sutra orAptamimansa.The Jain
philosophy of Syadvada was, perhaps for the first time, fully explained in this
book.The work was therefore, discussed
by non-Jain philosophers such as Kumarila (8th / 9th centuries ) and Vachaspatimishra
respectively. Few Jain authors except Samantabhadra and Akalanka have
been found worthy of such notice by non-Jain philosophers.

Sinhanandi

Some inscriptions16 mention that Samantabhadra
was succeeded by Sinhanandi. In that case he should belong to the 2nd century
according to the pattavali reckoning.Sinhanandi is not known as the author of any work.His fame rests on the legend that he was
instrumental in the foundation of the Western Ganga kingdom in
Karnataka.The legend is as follows:17

"Two princes of the Ikshaku family, Dadiga and Madhav,
migrated from the north to south India.They came to the town of Perur (in the Cuddapah district in the Andhra
State). There they met a Jain teacher whose name was Sinhanandi. He
trained them in the art of ruling.At
the behest of the teacher Madhav cut asunder a stone pillar which barred
the road to the entry of the Goddess of sovereignty."Thereupon Sinhanandi invested the princes
with royal authority, and made them rulers of a kingdom".

The fullest version of the story is met with in a stone
inscription from the Karnataka state, dated the first quarter of the 12th
century.The nucleus of the story or a
few bare allusions to its main incidents, however, occur in the epigraphic
records ranging from he 5th century onwards.18 Thus, is believed generally that with the
foundation of the Ganga kingdom, but there is no independent inscription
to prove that Madhav, the founder himself became a Jain as the
later Jain inscriptions claim.

If Sinhanandi was the successor of Samantabhadra then the
above incident should have happened by the first half of the 3rd century, but
most authorities believe that the Western Ganga dynasty was founded in
the second half of the 4th century.Thus Sinhanandi was not perhaps the immediate successor of
Samantabhadra.In fact most Digambarapattavalis do not mention Sinhanandi at all.

According to one tradition the successor of Sinhanandi
was one Davi Parmeshvara19 and his successor was Devanandi whose
epithet was Pujyapada.However, the
several Pattavalis of the Digambaras, all of which generally
start with Bhadrabahu II, give conflicting names of the succeeding
patriarchs.The pattavali given
in the inscription No. 4020 in Sravana Belgola is as follows:

- Umasvati (sic)

- Banlakapichchha

- Samantabhadra

- Devanandi

- Akalankat

Some other pattavalis give the following list-

- Bhadrabahu II

- Guptigupta

- MaghanandiI

- Jina Chandra I

- Kundkunda

- Umasvami

- Lohacharya II,

- Yasakirti

- Yasonandi

- Devanandi

- Pujyapada

- Gunanandi I.

According to the first list above Devanandi was the
successor of Samantabhadra.In the
second list.There is no Smantabhadra,
and at the same time Devanandi and Pujyapada are two different persons.

However, it is generally agreed that Pujyapada was the
epithet of Devanandi.Hehad is another
epithet, Jinendrabuddhi. He is generally known for this grammar called
Jainendra Vyakarana.Vopadeva, in the
13th century, mentions him among the eight great grammarians of the
country.Pujyayada had also written a
commentary on Umasvami's work.This was
called the Sarvarthasiddhi.

We come next to Akalanka with whom the period of the
great Jainacharyas ends in the Karnataka region.According to one of the pattavalis
given above he was the disciple of Pujayapada Devanandi.Winternitz, however, believed that he was a
near contemporary of Samantabhadra and both of them lived in the first half of
the 8th century.Apart from writing a
commentary called the Tattvartharajavarttika on the great work of Umasvami,
Akalanka wrote a number of works on logic, viz., NyasavinischayaLaghiyastarya,
andSvarupasambodhana.He was thus called a Master of Jain
logic- Syadvada - Vidyapati.He as opposed, as stated earlier, by Kumarila, the great philosopher of Brahmanical
orthodoxy.Akalanka wrote many other
treatises also.

Thus beginning with the 1st century and up to the end of
the 8th century, the Jains of the Karnataka region produced a number of
distinguished scholars.The Jain
community of Karnataka at that time must have been large and prosperous enough
to provide for the maintenance of these scholars and their pupils.

Tamil Nadu

It has been surmised from the various references in the
Tamil literature22 that Jainism was quite important in Tamil Nadu in
the period 5th to 11th century.Jainism
is not mentioned in the Sangam literature (4th century AD), but mention
of the people professing Jainism is found in the two Tamil epics Silappadikaram
and Manimekhalai.23Both
these epics belong to the 6th or 7th century AD.Manimekhalai is a Buddhist work and refers to the Jains as
Ni (r) granthas. It gives a reasonably good exposition of the Jain
religious philosophy.But naturally,
being a Buddhist work refutes it. Silappadikaaram is the story of a
wife's devotion to her husband.It
mentions Uraiyur a Chola capital, as a center of Jainism.Both the classics relate that the Ni (r) granths
lived outside the town in their cool cloisters.The walls of which were surrounded by small flower gardens.They also had monasteries for nuns.24This description of Jain
monasteries leads one to doubt its authenticity, for the Jains unlike
the Buddhists do not favor living in monasteries.Also since the Jains of south India were Digambaras,
there should not have been nuns among them, to say nothing of there being
monasteries for them.

Another Tamil work, the Pattinapalai, speaks of
the Jain and Buddhist temples being in one quarter of the city of Pugar,
while in another quarter the Brahmans with plaited hair performed
sacrifices and raised volumes of smoke.25

These references show that the number of Jains in
Tamil Nadu was sufficiently large to be noticed in the popular literature of
the period.One cannot avoid the
suspicion, however, that there was a tendency on the part of these writers to
mix up the Jains and the Buddhists.But Hiuen Tsang who wasin
Kanchi in the middle of the 7th century also reported that he saw numerous Nirgranthas
at this place:and since he is not
likely to have confused between the Buddhists and the Nirgranthas, is certain,
that the Jain population of Tamil Nadu at that time was quite large.

The Jain population of Tamil Nadu was apparently
larger in the 8th and 9th century than in the 7th century, for in the latter
period there are very few Jain inscriptions. Most of the inscriptions in
Tamil (about 80 or so), belong to the 8th and the 9th centuries, and these have
been found mainly in the Madurai Tirunelveli area.26[In the Salem district also there was
a Jain temple or religious place in Tagdur (Dharmapuri) in AD 878.] Thus
Jains were quite numerous in Tamil Nadu in the 9th century.Thereafter there was perhaps a slow
reduction in the Jain population.

Many large and small Jain temples still survive in
Tamil Nadu..Two of these are important
Jain centers even today.One is
a Tirumalaipuram, andthe other is a
Tiruparuttikunram.The latter is a
suburb of Conjeeveam, about three kilometers from the center of the town, and
is in fact still called Jain Kanci.The presiding deity here is Vardhamana who is also styled trailokyanathasvami.The temple is one of
the biggest in the taluk.

It is adorned with artistic splendor, and it has a large
number of icons of the Jain pattern.From the inscriptions (about 17 in number)found at this place it appears that it was built by the Chola
emperors Rajendra I (c.1014-44) and
Kulottunga I (c.1070 -1120), and added
to by Rajendra III (c. 216-46).Later
additions were made by the Vijayanagar emperors Bukka II (in 1387-88) and
Krishna Deva Raya (in 1518).There are
some remarkable murals on the temple.These date from the 16th and the 18th century.

The fact that this large and beautiful Jain temple
is the heart of the Tamil country was being adorned even in the 18th century
proves that a sufficiently numerous and prosperous Jain community
existed in the part of the country till then.Otherwise the temple could not have been maintained.

What happened to the Jains of the Tamil Nadu after
that?The possibility is, that most of
the richer sections of the Jain population got slowly absorbed in the
dominant Shiv and Vaishnava community surrounding them, and the poorer
section took to farming. In fact most of the 50,000 indigenous Jain that
exist in Tamil Nadu today are farmers,29 and a majority of them live
in the North Arcot district. It is perhaps the lack of many rich people among
them, that has made the Jains inconspicuous in the Tamil Nadu.It is also possible, that their proportion
in the total population is less than, it was a thousand years ago, when they
started building the numerous temples still seen all over the place.

One story goes that there was a sudden reduction in the
number of Jains specially in the Madurai area in the 7th century.This story is found in the Shaivite
books.It starts with the story of the Shiv
saint Gnanasambandha (end of the 7th century) as given in the Periyapuranam (AD
1150.)There was a Pandya king of
Madurai.He was hunched backed.The boy saint Gnanasambandha cured him of
his infirmity and the grateful king embraced Shiv region. This
emboldened the Shiv population of the city who challenged the local Jains
to prove the superiority of their religion.The wager was that each sect would throw a palm- leaf manuscript of its
sacred text in the river, and the party whose text lose would be annihilated by
the other party.The Jain text
was washed away, but the Shiv text floated against the current.The 8,000 Jains of Madurai were then
killed by impalement by the Shivs.This alleged incident proved by the evidence of a work composed almost
500 years later and also by the evidence of some frescoes on the walls of the
Golden Lily Tank of the Minakshi temple (17th century) recorded 1,000 years
later.

The story is not found in any Jain source, the Jains
evidently know nothing about it;and so
do not accuse the Shivs of this massacre.The Hindu historians on the other hand are at pains to prove the
absurdity of the story by such arguments as that (1) the Jains would never
enter into a wager where if they won they would have to kill human beings, (2)
the king would not permit 8000 of his innocent subjects to be killed;(3) the Jain learned men continued to
compose important works on grammar and lexicography in Mandurai itself even
after the alleged incident.Among these
works are cited the sendanDivakaram a Tamil dictionary of
Divakara; the Neminatham and Vachchamalai, two Tamil grammars by Gunavira Pandit,
etc.Lastly, if all the Jains of
Madurai were massacred in the 7th century, there would not be, as we have seen
earlier.A concentration of Jains
in the same area in the 8th and 9th centuries.

The truth of the matter is that such stories of the
annihilation of one sect by a rival sect, were a common feature of Tamil
literature in those days.These were
required to prove the superiority of one's own sect above that of the
other.In fact in one such story a Jain
king of Kanchi gave the Buddhists a similar treatment, and in another the
Vaishnava apostle Ramnuja treated the Jains similarly by instigating the
Hoysala king Vishnu Vardhana against them.30Hagiography need not be taken as history.

The Ninth to the
Seventeenth Century in Karnataka

This period was the most significant in the history of
the Digambara Church.Throughout
this long period Jainism was a prominent religion of south India, and
especially of Karnataka.The Jains
held important positions in the government.Much of the commerce of the country was controlled by the Jains.
All these prosperous people spent lavishly for the construction of temples and
monuments of their religion.While the
rulers spent their wealth in building the Hindu temples at Ellora, Halevid,
etc., the Jain commercial classes filled the region with gigantic
statues of Bahubali and Magnificent stambhas (towers) and temples.Going by the number of the archaeological
remains alone, it might be inferred that some parts of Karnataka, specially the
area round about Sravana Belagola, and Karakal were entirely Jain areas.

This period may also be called the period of the Bhattarakas.3
The Bhattarakas could be compared with the abbots or Mahants of
monasteries, but in place of monasteries that do not exist in Jainism, the
Bhattarkas were the person who managed the temples and also the estates endowed
to the temples by the rulers, and the rich devotees.Though these jobs were of a secular nature, the Bhattarakas
were actually religious persons. They were the religious leaders of the
community.Among the Svetambaras,
such leadership was provided by the monks; but on account of the rule of strict
nudity, few people became monks among the Digambaras, and the Bhattarakas
thus necessarily had to assume this leadership.Another important function that the Bhattarkas performed was to
lead the members of the community to various places of pilgrimage.The Bhattarakas were not strictly munis
or ascetics, and therefore they did not go about naked, as Digambara munis
were expected to live.According to a
legend32 Sultan Firoze Shah Tughluq (1351-1388) invited some DigambaraJain saints and entertained them at his court and palace.Hearing of the great fame and learning of
their chief, his queen desired to see him.For her sake the saint put on a piece of cloth to his nakedness when he
appeared before her.He made religious
atonements for this undue liberty, but the example set by him was adopted by
his followers.Since then a new sect of
yatis the Bhattarakas, started among the Digambaras.The legend has no historic basis for the
mention of the Bhattarakas, is found in the 9th century in the
Satkhandagamatika of Virasena, but the system must have started much earlier.
For even in the inscriptions of the 5th century we find mention of the gifts of
land to Jain temples, and there must have been some body to manage the
properties so received.

The DigambaraJain Community was divided
during this period into various sanghas and ganas.33The Senagana and the Balatkaragana claimed that they belonged to the Mulasangha.Similarly Mathura, Ladabagada, Bagada and
Nanditata ganas claimed kastha as their sangha.The kasthasangha is said to
have been established in 697 by Kumarasena in Nanditata (the present Nanded in
Maharashtra).On the other hand the
documents of these four ganas prior to the 12th century do not mention
that they had any connection with the Kasthasangha.It has been conjectured therefore that
perhaps the sangha itself was formed by the coming together of these
four ganas.

All these speculations, however, are of little
importance, for, the difference between one gana and another was
negligible.When we come to the exact
difference in the beliefs of the various ganas and sanghas, it
appears that they mainly lie in the matter of using the various kinds of pichchhis
(sweeps) by the monks and in nothing else.While the Senagana and the Balatkara gana
prescribed the peacock's tail for their pichchhi, the Ladabagada and the
Nanditata prescribed the camara (yak's tail).34The Mathura gana on the other
hand did not use any pichchhi at all.Schubring, however, mentions an important point, that the kasthasangha
allowed women also to take diksa.35Perhaps this has affected the praxis of the northern Digambaras,
for the DigambaraJains of northern India do allow the women at
the present time to become nuns.(The
nuns are allowed a long piece of white cloth to be worn as sadis.A Digambara nun does not expect to
get salvation in this birth.She only
expects to go to heaven as a reward for her religious life. When her allotted
period of stay in heaven is over, she would be born as a man.He can then try for the final salvation.)

Rashtrakutas

The Rashtrakutas ruled over a large area in the center of
India for two centuries beginning with the middle of the 8th century.One of the important patrons of learning
among them was Amoghavarsha Nripatunga (815-877).He was himself a scholar, and wrote an important Kannada work on
poetics.One of his ecpithets was
Atishayadhavala.36Jinasena
wrote the Jain Adipurana during his period.The commentary on the certain parts of the Shatkhandagama was
also perhaps prepared during his period.This commentary is known as Jayadhavala.

It was during Amoghavarsha's time that Ugraditya wrote a
treatise on medicine called Kalyanakaraka.37 It is a voluminous work
in Sanskit containing 8,000 slokas. Ugraditya says that the
original author of this work was Pujyapada, and he had only revised and
enlarged it.Who this Pujyapada was is
not clear?The famous Pujyapada was not
known to be a writer on medicine.

Ugraditya divides the book in eight chapters, as was
usual with other contemporary Ayurvedic works.However his main attempt was to eliminate the use in medicine of meat
and other similar animal products and all types of intoxicants. In other words,
it prescribed only those medicines that a Jain could safety take.The author refers to Agnivesha, Kashyapa and
Charaka among the ancient authors but does not mention Susruta or Nagar
Juna.Mercury and other metals are important
ingredients medicine in the Kalyanakaraka.This was perhaps due to the introduction of Arabic influence, for,
mercury and other metals though mentioned are not very important as medicines
in earlier Indian works.

Another scholar who flourished during this period was the
Jain mathematician Mahaviracharya, who wrote his Ganitasarasangraha 38
in c. 850. Mahavira found out the rule for calculating the number of
combinations of n things taken r at a time (problem number VI, 218).This can be put in the modern notation as

n!

------------

r!
(n-r)!

It is, however, not certain that it was his discovery,
for Mahvira never refers to any earlier mathematicians, not even to Brahmagupta
whose famous rule for the area of the (cyclic) quadrilateral he mentions. 39

A mathematical discovery of this period was the use of
logarithms for calculations with large numbers.These logarithms were with the bases 2, 3, and 4. Reference to
the use of logarithms occurs for the first time in the Dhavala commentary
mentioned above.Use of logarithms for
the ease of calculations with large numbers that occur in Jain
cosmology, continued at least for a hundred years, for Nemichandra at the end
of the tenth century mentions the rule of logarithm (which he called ardhacchheda,
i.e., logarithm at the base 2), as:

"The ardhachheda of the multiplier plus the ardhachheda
of the multiplicand is the ardhachheda of the product" Trilokasara,
Gatha 105)

or, in modern notations,

log2A + log2B = log2 A.B

Later Gangas

In the later centuries of Ganga rule in southern
Karnataka we see evidence of great material prosperity of the Jains.Epigraphic records indicate that these
rulers were all patrons of the Jains and made grants to various Jain
temples. Indeed, some of them might have themselves become Jains.These were Nitimarga I (853-870), Nitimarga
II (907- 935), Marasinha III ((960-974), etc.In fact, Marasinha III died by the Jain vow of starvation, known
as Sallekhana in the presence of Ajitasena Bhattaraka in AD 974. 40

Some ministers and generals of these Ganga rulers
also were devout Jains and spent large sums of money in building temples
and other architectural monuments.The
17 meter high statue of Bahubali was built at Sravana Belgola by Chamundaraya
in 983.Chamundaraya was the minister
and general of Rachamalla, a king of the Ganga dynasty.

Nemichandra, the famous Digambara scholar was a
friend of this minister.Three of
Nemichandra's works are still considered quite important for the sect.These are Trilokasara, Labdhisara and
Gommatasara.The first is a work on
Jain cosmography.Nemichandra
displayed his mathematical talent in writing this book.The other two works are on Jain
philosophy.(All these three works of
Nemichandra were translated into Hindi prose by Todarmal of Jaipur, in the 18th
century).

The Gangas ruled over south Karnataka from the
fourth to the 10th century and all through their period they were helpful
towards the Jains.

Hoysalas

Karnataka entered its period of artistic glory with the
establishment of the Hoysala dynasty in the 12th century. The capital of the
Hoysalas was at Dorasamudra.They
attained great power under Vishucardhana (1111-52) and his grand son Vira
Ballala II.The last notable ruler of
this dynasty was Vira Ballala III. He sustained defeats at the hands of Kafur,
the general of Ala-ud-din Khailji, and finally perished in or about 1342.

The Hoysala kings built many beautiful temples in south
Karnataka.These temples are the
glories of Indian art. While the kings built temples of the Shiv and
Vaishnava faiths, their ministers and the merchant princes among their subjects
built Jain temples.Ganga
Raja, a general and minister of Visuvardhana the greatest of the Hoysals, built
the Parshvantha basadi (basadi in Karnataka means a Jain
temple) at Chamarajanagar near Mysore.Gangaraja
also built the surrounding enclosure to the statue of Bahubali in Sravana
Belgola.In 1116 Hulla who was
treasurer or bhandarifor three
successive years, Hoysala rulers built the Chaturvinsati- Jinalaya (also
known as the Bhandari-basadi) in Sravana Belgola.Another basadi in the vicinity is the
Viraballabha- Jainalya built in honor of the Hoysala king Viraballabha
II by a merchant in 1176.

We thus see that all these dynasties that ruled over
Karnataka were friendly to the Jains.Schubring has well summarized the situation:"Individually as well as in their subsequent members quite a
number of princely houses such as the Ganga, Rashtrakuta, Chalukya,
Hoysala have proved friendly to the Jains.And yet taking into account the well-known versatility of the
Indian princes in religious affairs, we must be careful not to overrate the
role acted by Jainism in political life, and it is rather bold to speak of"adeptes ad jainism"(initiated into Jainism) in this
connection.It may be assumed, that
more often than not it was for reasons of prudence, that it was thought
necessary to suit the order so influential owing to its wealthy laymen."41
Schubring is generally correct in
his assessment.Some later Ganga
kings it appears actually were initiated into Jainism. But the evidence for
this was not available to Schubring when he wrote in 1934.

Viyayanagara Empire

This empire was known among other things for the revival
of Brahmanic learning but if we go by the number of existing monuments spread
throughout the empire, it was also a period of great building activity of the Jains.

In fact the large building activity seen among the Jains
was due to the fact that the main commercial class of Karnataka, the Vira
Banajigas had become ardent Jains.As Saletare puts it, "The real clue to the understanding of the
high position which Jainism held in the land is seen in the ardor and devotion
of the commercial"42classes;and again, "with the immense wealth of
which Vira Banajigas were the traditional custodians, the Jain sages had
magnificent Jinalayas and images constructed".43

If we take the period from the 10th to the early 17th
century, we find that the main center of constructional activity of the Jains
in the first half of this period was Sravana Belgola, but by the second half of
this period the center had shifted westwards towards Karkala, almost on the
sea-coast near Mangalore.Karkala itself was the seat of the Bhairarasa Wodeyars,44 a
powerful Jain family (of which no representatives are now left.)The second largest image of Gommatadeva (or
Bahubali) about 12.5 metres high was built here in AD 1431.It was built by Vira Pandya Bhairarasa
Wodeyar.At Haleangadi, close by is the
finest Jainstambhain
the district.It has a monolithic shaft
33 feet (10 metres) high in eight segments, each beautifully and variously
ornamented, supporting an elegant capital and topped by a stone shrine
containing a statue.The total height
is about 50 feet (15 metres)". 45

Another very large Bahubali statue was built in Yenur (or
Venur) now a village in the Mangalore Taluk.The statue is 37 feet (11.1 metres) high and was built in
1603.At that time the place must have
been quite important, for besides this statue there are numerous other Jain
remains there.46

The place nearby which became the center of Jainism in
South India in the period 13th to the early 17th century is Mudabadri, about 16
kilometers from Karkala.The place is
so important that it is described as Jain-Kasi.This Jain center is said to have been
started near about AD 714 when a monk from Sravana Belgola established the
first Jain temple, the Parshvanatha-basadi here.The place became important after 1220, when an important acharya
Charukirti Panditcharya arrived here from Sravana Belgola.47

From then on wards till the early 17th century this whole
area was a scene of large constructional activity of the Jains.The architectural style adopted was also
peculiar.As Fergusson remarks,
"When we descend the Ghats into Kanada, or the Tulava country, we
come on a totally different state of matters.Jainism is the religion of the country, and all or nearly all the
temples belong to this sect, but their architecture is neither the Dravidian
style of the south, nor that of northern India, and indeed is not known to
exist anywhere else in India proper, but recurs with all its peculiarities in
Nepal.

"They are much plainer than Hindu temples generally
are. The pillars look like logs of wood with the angles partially chamfered
off, so as to make them octagons, and the sloping roofs of the verandas
are so evidently wooden that the style itself cannot be far removed from a
wooden original...

"The feature however which presents the greatest
resemblance to the northern (i.e. Nepalese) styles, is the reverse slope of the
eaves above the varandah.I am not aware
of its existence anywhere else south of Nepal, and it is so peculiar that it is
much more likely to have been copied than reinvented".48

Most of the Jain religious buildings in and near
about Mudabadri were built by the wealthy merchants of the area. The thousand
pillared basadi or temple, known as the Tribhuvana-tilaka-chuda-mani'
was built by a group of Jain merchants (settis) in 1430, and this
is the most magnificent Jain shrine in south India.49

Mudabadri temples also became depositories of Jain
literature.Indeed the famous
commentaries Dhavala and Jayadhavala were found only in the Siddhanta-basadi
here.50

As the Mudabadri-Karkala area, also known as the Tuluva
country, became more and more important, the influence of Jainism declined in
the rest of South India.The one reason
for this was the revival of the Brahmanical religion under the kings of the
Vijayanagarempire.The Vijayanagara kings were not against the Jains.In fact, they were always consoling just
when any civil dispute arose between the Jains and others. Saletore51
cites two cases, one in 1363 and the other in 1368, where the disputes
between the two antagonistic groups of Jains and non-Jains were
amicably settled by the Vijayanagara rulers.These settlements were duly recorded in stone inscriptions.The cause of the decline was thus not the
hostility of the kings.It has to be
looked some where else.

Of all the places in South India, it was Karnataka where
Jainism was strongest.Two things
happened there, which in the course of a few centuries, reduced the influence
of Jainism in the greater part of the region. Ultimately by the 16th century its
stronghold was left only in one corner of the region.That is in the Tuluva country, round about Karkala, Mudabadre,
etc.The first of this was the rise of
the Vira-Shiv or the Lingayat religion under the leadership of Basava in
the 12 century.He himself being a
minister was able to convert many of the local chiefs such as the Santaras,
rulers of Coorg, etc., to Vira-Shaivism.52

The second and perhaps the decisive reason was the
conversion of the main mercantile class the Vira Banajigas from Jainism to
Vira-Shaivism.53By this one
stroke the main patrons of Jainism were lost to a rival religion.Added to this was the fact that after the
period of the acharyas, say, by the end of the 9th century, there were
no out standing Jain leaders in Karnataka to give fresh intellectual
life to this community.

Jainism, therefore, slowly became extinguished in south
India, leaving comparatively small pockets of devotees in the centers, which
were great at one time.These were, for
instance, Sravana Belgola and Mudabadre.Jain religious groups have survived there to this day.So far as the other scattered Jain
populations were concerned the richer people among them were converted to some
Brahmanical religion such as Vaishnavism or Shaivism, and the poorer mostly
took to farming and thus became inconspicuous.

The indigenous Jains who are left in South India
today are endogamous clans and so do not intermarry with the Jains of
North India.They are all Digambaras
and are dividend into four main castes, viz.Setavala (not found in Karnataka), Chaturtha, Panchama, and Bogara or
Kasara, and three small castes, Upadhyayas, Kamboja and Harada.Their priests are Brahmans.

"Each of the four main castes in the South is led by
its own spiritual leader (bhattaraka), who occupying intermediary
positions betweenascetics and laymen
can individually resolve disputes between the members of the caste and expel
from it whom so ever he considers it necessary."54The Chaturthas are mainly
agriculturists, the Setavalas are agriculturists as well as tailors, the
Kasaras or the Bogaras are coppersmiths, and the members of the Panchama caste
follow any of these professions.55

The Digambaras of
North India

Thanks to the numerous stone inscriptions and religious
literature found in South India, more or less a continuous history of the DigambarasJains can be traced from the 5th to 17th century AD. We know much less
about the Digambara communities in the north during the corresponding
period.As stated earlier, most of the
statues of the Tirthankaras that have been found in the 4th and 5thcentury in the area now covered by Uttar
Pradesh, were nude.The majority of the
Jains in this area today are Digambaras. We may thus conclude
that when finally the great schism occurred (and this might have been a gradual
process) the Jains of north India found themselves in the Digambara
camp. Later monuments also support the view that most of the Jains of
eastern and northern Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa were also Digambaras.Mention has already been made of the Digambara
images found in Bihar (12th century), and Orissa (11th to 15th centuries).Much more important is the Jain group
of temples in Khajuraho (10th-11th century).These are all Digambara temples and must have been built by the
rich merchants living in the capital city of Chandela Rajput kings of
Bundelkhand.One temple in this group,
that of Parshvanatha, has even been compared favorably56 with the
renowned Kandarya Mahadev temple of this place.Another important group of Digambara Temples is in Deogarh
in Jhansi district.The Jain
merchants of Bundelkhand were perhaps as well looked after by the Chandela
rulers as their counterparts were in Karnataka.

A few Kegambara inscriptions have been found in Gwalior
also.These are fragmentary and do not
give much information.

Chittorgarh, like Khajuraho, was a stronghold of the Digambaras
in the 12th and 13th century.This is
proved by a number of Jain inscriptions found there.Four of them57 are by one Shaha Jijaka.It was he who had raised the famous
Kirtistambha of Chittorgarh in 1300 ADShaha Jijaka claimed to belong to the Kundakundanvyaya.This proves that not only was the tower
raised by a Digambara merchant, but also that the practice of claiming
descent from the line of Kundakunda, a practice quite common in South India,
had spread to north by the 13th century.

However, the fact remains that it is difficult to build
up a history of Digambaras of north India on the basis of the available
epigraphic evidence.The number of
inscriptions found so far are too few.In the five volumes Jain ShilaLekha Sangraha, a Digambara collection, the number of Digambara
inscriptions recorded from north India after the 6th century would no be more
than 20.

There is a paucity of literary sources also.The Digambaras of North India, unlike
their counterparts in the South, composed very few works at least up to the
17th century.In fact in the early
medieval period there was perhaps only one important Digambara writer in
north India. Harisena who wrote is quite informative about the social and
religious condition of India of this period.As mentioned earlier, the Shvetambara sect according to Harisena
originated in Valabhi.

In the absence of sufficient epigraphic and literary
evidence, one has to depend on the legendary materials for reconstructing the
history of the Digambaras of north India.

One thing immediately becomes clear.The Digambaras, unlike the Svetambaras
did not break up into large number of groups and sub-groups in north
India.Most of them belonged to the
Bisapanthis sect.The origin of this
sect is not clearly known. "It probably originated in the 13th century.
Glasenapp remarks that one Vasantakirti held the view that so long as the monks
lived among the people, they should wear one garment.The believers of this opinion were called Vishvapanthis.This was corrupted into Bisapanthis.The monks of this pantha live in a
cloister under the headship of a Bhattaraka.They install the image of Tirthankaras along with that of
Kshetrapala deities such as the Bhairavas and others.They worship the images by offering fruits, flowers and other
foodstuffs."58

Whatever might be the origin of the Bisapanthis, the
descrition of their religious practices as given above is substantially
correct.In fact the majority of the DigambaraJains of northern India followed these practices.As the days passed the Bhattarakas,
who managed the properties of the temples and monasteries became more and more
powerful. The popularity of the Kshetrapala deities (who for all practical
purposes were folk Gods)continued to
increase.A protest against such laxity
in the Jain religion which by its nature is puritan was inevitable.Such a movement started some time in the
17th century in the Agra region. One of the leaders of this protest was
Banarasidasa Jain. In course of time the movement grew stronger, and it
was named Terapantha.According
to Bakhtaram Shah, an 18th century author who was himself against this
movement, the Terapantha sect originated in Sanganer, near Jaipur,
sometimes in the early 18th century.

As it has always happened in the Jain reformist
movements, the Terapanthis did not try to introduce any change in the
basic tenets of the Jain religion.Their reforms were connected with small details of rituals only. For
instance, this sect believed that one should not worship in the temples at
night, that while worshipping one should be standing and not sitting, that kesara
(saffron) should not be offered to image, etc.

Starting from the Agra-Jaipur region the Terapantha
movement spread among all the Digambra Hainas of northern India.Those who did not accept the views of this
sect were called Bisapanthis.As to
which is the original sect and which the offshoot, remains a matter of
perennial dispute.

In the 18th century, there was a learned DigambaraJain in Jaipur.His name was
Todarmal.He translated into Hindi
prose all the voluminous Prakrit works of Nemichandra (10th century)of Karnataka.In those days of the infancy of Hindi prose, Todarmal’s writings
show a refreshing clarity and rhythm.Todarmal belonged to the Terapantha sect.His son Gumaniram was very orthodox in his religious opinions;
and he thought that Terapantha had not gone back far enough to the original
pristine Jain religion.He,
therefore started a new sect which was named after him as Gumana- pantha.But as it happens with too puritan a sect, Gumana-
pantha never became popular.Its
adherents were always few in number.Some temples belonging to this sect in the Jaipur city and its
neighborhood prove that the sect still survives.

REFERENCES

1."Sisena ya Bhaddabahussa" - at the end of his work
Bodhapahuda (quoted by J. P. Jain, op. cit., p.121).

2.Schubring, op. cit., p. 63.

3.S. K. Rao, op. cit., p. 12.

4.See Appendix II.

5. The conjecture that
Kundakunda lived in the first century AD was made by Winternitz (op. Cit., p.
476) on the basis of Pattavalis.The earliest inscription that mentions Kundakunda's anvaya is the
Mercara cooper plate inscription of S. 388 (AD 466).Since it is now believed that this plate is a forgery of the 8th
or 9th century, not much reliance can be placed on this inscription.The plate mentions 6 persons in the anvaya
of Kundakunda, starting with Gunacandra-bhatara and ending with
Chandranandi-bhatara.It has
been argued that even if this plate was a copy of a genuine 5th century plate,
and we assign 25 years to each person, Gunachandra, the first person named
would belong to early 4th century ADIf
he was a disciple of Kundakunda himself, then Kundakunda also belonged to the
some period.(A.K. Chatterjee,
Comprehensive History of Jainism, pp. 137, 139 & 324-25).All other inscriptions which mention the anvaya
of Kundakunda were inscribed after AD 900.

6.S.K. Rao, Jainism in South India, P.20.

7.Jain Siddhanta Kosha, Vol. II, P.126.

8.Jain Shila Lekha, Snagraha, Vol, I, pp. 197-98.

9. The discovery was made in
the Epigraphic Report of the Southern circle for 1916; p. 134 Saletore. Op,
cit., p.571.

10. S. K. Rao, op. cit., p.21; also Winternitz, op. cit., p. 578.

11. Winternitz, op. cit.,
p578.

12. Ibid., p. 579.

13. Nathuram Premi, the Digambara
Scholar, wanted to solve this difficulty by maintaining that Umasvami was
neither a Shvetambara nor a Digambara but that he belonged to the
third sect- the Yapaniyas ( vide his Jain Sahitya aur Itihasa, p.
537);but there is nothing in
Umasvami's writings to suggest this.

14. Winternitz, op. cit., p.
580.

15. Winternitz places him in
the first half of the 8th century AD (Ibid., p.580).

16. e.g.Epigraph Carnatica II, No. 59.

17. P. B. Desai, Jainism in
South India, pp. 9-10,

18. See Saletore, op. cit.,
pp. 10-11,

19.Rao, op. Cit., p. 25.

20. The number is that of the Jain Shila Lekha Sangraha,
Vol. I.

21. Winternitz, op. Cit., pp.
580-81.

22. Some Jain
technical words entered the Tamil language also.A list of 25 such words is given in the Comprehensive History of
India, Vol. II, p. 683n.

23. A gist of the stories in
these two works is given in A. L. Basham's The Wonder that was India, pp.
471-477.

24. Saletore, Medieval
Jainism, pp. 241-42.

25. Ibid.

26. Chakravarti, Jain
Literature in Tamil, p. 139

27. Saletore, op. cit., p.
245.

28. Goetz. op. cit., p 790.

29. Lakshmi Narayan, "Jains
of South India," in the Times of India dated 16-1-1977.

30. S. Krishnasvami Aiyangar,
Some Contributions of South India to Indian Culture, p. 238.

31.V. P. Johrapurkas, Bhattaraka Sampradaya, pp. 1-2.

32.Bhattaraka Sampradaya, p.1.

33. We do not know when
exactly the divisions started. According to the Jain Siddhanta Kosa,
they had started in the 1st century AD"The original Mulasangha was allowed to break up by Acharya
Arhadvali in 593 AV. and it broke up into many sanghas, such as nandi,
Vira, Aparajita, Sena, etc.None of these sanghas exist today."(Vol. I, p. 340).

34.Bhattaraka Sampradaya, p. 211.

35.Schubring, op. cit., p. 62.

36.S. K. Rao, op, cit., p. 41.

37. A manuscript of this work
was identified and first brought to general notice in the Mysore Archaelogical
Report, 1922.A detailed essay on this
work was published in the Bulletin of the Department of the History of
Medicine, Hyderabad, 1964, Vol. II, pp. 203ff.

38. Three incomplete
manuscripts of this work were discovered by Professor Rangacharya in 1912 in
the Government Oriental Manuscript Library, Madras. Sometime later a complete
copy in Kannada script was found in the Government Oriental Library, Mysore.

39. Like Brahmagupta,
Mahavira also fails to mention that the formula was applicable to cyclic
quadrilaterals only.

48. James Fergusson, History
of Indian and Eastern Architecture, pp. 270-72.

49. S.K. Rao. op. cit., p.
57.

50. Ibid., p. 31.

51. Saletore, op. cit., pp.
287-289.

52. Ibid., p. 280.

53. Ibid., p. 282.

54. N. R. Guseva, Jainism, p.
73.

55. N.R. Premi, Jain
Sahitya aur Itihasa, pp. 504-506.

56. Fergusson, op. cit., p.
456.(Fergusson perhaps never saw the
temples;the comparison was made on the
basis of Photographs.Ibid., p. 245n.).

57. Nos. 152-155 in the Jain
Shila-Lekha Sangraha, Vol. V.

58. U.K. Jain,Jain Sects and Schools, p. 137.

59. Banarasidasa Jain is generally known as the writer of the Ardhakathanaka,
the first autobiography in an Indian language.

Yapaniyas

Apart from the Digambaras and the Svetambaras
there was, in the past another sect of the Jains.This sect, known as the Yapaniyas existed in
Karnataka at least from the 5th to the 14th century.This we know from the epigraphic evidence. The first and the last
inscriptions that mention them and which have been discovered so far, belong to
these centuries respectively and all the inscriptions which mention them have
been found in Karnataka only.

The first inscription that mentions the Yapaniyas is by
Mrigesavarman (AD 475-490) a Dadamba king of Palasika.The Kadambas themselves were Brahmans,
but this king erected a Jain temple in the city o Palasika, and made a
grant to the sects of Yapaniyas, Nirgranthas, and the Kurchakas.(The Nirgranthas were, of course, the Digambaras,
but who the Kurchakas were, is not clear).

The last inscription which mentions the Yapaniyas was
found in the Tuluva country- southwest Karnataka. It is dated Saka 1316 (AD
1394).

Thus we know that the sect existed for at least a thousand
years.We can also make the guess that
the sect was ultimately absorbed in the Digambara community.The Yapaniyas worshipped nude images of the Tirthankaras
in their temples.Some of these temples
with their images still exist and the people who worship in these temples
nowadays are Digambaras.The Yapaniya
monks themselves also used to remain nude.There was perhaps, therefore, not much difficulty in such absorption,
specially if the sect ultimately dwindled to a small number.

Nothing authentic is known about how the Yapaniya
sect originated.Devasena records a
tradition in his Darshanasara (mid-11th century that the Yapaniya-sangha
was started by a Shvetambara monk in the year 205 after the death of
king Vikram.Since however, the
tradition is very late, not much reliance can be placed on it.However, one thing is clear. The Digambaras
believed that the original affiliation of the Yapaniyas was with the Svetambaras,
and the Digambara author Indranandi countedthem as one of the five improper or false sects (Jainbhasa)
of the Jains.The five included
the Svetambaras also.

The Shvetambara author Gunaratna (15th century) on
the other hand makes the definite statement that the Digambaras were
divided into four sanghas namely, Kastha, Mula, Mathura, and
Gopya or Yapaniya.These
last, that are the Gopyas or the Yapaniyas differed from the
other three sects in three matters:they used the salutation dharma-labha (the other three used dharma
virddhi,) they believed that the kevalin lived on food, and they
allowed women to find salvation. (These last two beliefs would put the Yapaniyas
definitely in the Shvetambara camp.)The net result was the neither the Digambaras nor the Svetambaras
wanted to own the Yapaniyas. Indeed this is how Monier Williams2
would derive the word

"Yapaniya"From the root ya meaning
expelled:The yapaniyas were
perhaps those who wandered away after being expelled by both the communities.

It is not clear whether the Yapaniyas had any
separate sacred texts of their own.There is some references to Yapaniya tantra by the Digambara
author Harighadra.But no such tantra
is found at present.Perhaps,for religious purposes, the Yapaniyas
used the Shvetambara sacred texts, for there is nothing against their principal
dogmas in these works.

The Yapaniyas are a matter of only historical
curiosity now.Indeed, except for their
one great grammarian, Shadatayana, there is no reason to remember them.That Shaktanayana who was a contemporary of
the Rashtrakuta king Amoghavarsa (c. 817-877), was a Yapaniya we know from the
note by Malayagira in his commentary on the NandiSutra.

All the available commentaries on the Shubdanushasana(grammar) of Shakatayana are by Digambara
authors who appear to have taken this grammar for their own.On the other hand two other works the Stri-mukti-prakarana
and the Kevali- bhukti prakarana which are also said to be by Shakatayana
are found only in the Shvetambara collections.Thus while one work of Shakatayana is accepted by the Digambaras,
his two other works are accepted by the Svetambaras only.It will be recalled that the position is
somewhat similar in the case of Umasvami or Umasvati also.While both the main sects of the Jains
accept his great work the Tattvarthadhigama-Sutra, the author's
own commentary on this work is acceptable to the Shvetambaras only. It
is on this analogy that Nathuram Prami has conjectured that Umasvami was a Yapaniya,2
for there is nothing else to support Premi's conjecture.

References

1.Kurchakas ( and no other sect ) are again mentioned in a copper
plate grant of Havirvarma of the same dynasty. Nathuram Premi thought that
Kurchaka was a Digambara sect (op. cit., pp. 559-563).

2. Monier Williams, Sanskrit
English Dictionary, p.849. He also
gives the term Yapana as the name of a Jain sect.Perhaps this was another name of the
Yapaniyas.

3.Premi, op. cit., pp. 533ff.

4. All the available
information on the Yapaniyas was summarized by A.N. Upadhyaya in his essay
"YapaniyaSangha-aJain Sect"in the Bombay University Journal of May
1933.Some more epigraphs which mention
the Yapaniyas have been discovered since then.The additional informations available from these epigraphs are only the
names of a few more ganas into which the Yapaniyasangha
was divided.

Svetambaras

The Svetambaras,
as a distinctly separate church developed only after the Valabhi Council.This Council was held in the year 980 (or
993) after the death of Mahavira (about the middle of the 5th century AD) for
the purpose of collecting the sacred texts and for reducing them to writing. It
was presided over by Devarddhi Kshamasramna.An important work of this period was the completion of the Kalpa
Sutra of Bhadrabahu.The whole of
the Kalpa Sutra cannot be ascribed to Bhadrabahu who, had died 170 years
after Mahavira.The Kalpa Sutra
has three sections.The first section
contains the Jinacaritra, "the biographies of the Jinas."The main portion in this section is the
biography of Mahavira.The second
section of the Kalpa Sutra consists of the Ther avali, i.e. the
list of the pontiffs, and also the name of the schools (gana), their
branches (sakha) and names of the heads of the school.This list contains names of the heads of the
school.This list contains names of the
pontiffs up to Devarddhi nearly 30 generations after Bhadrabayhu.Thus this list could not have been compiled
by Bhadrabahu himself.The third section
of the Kalpa Sutracontains the
Samacari, or Rules for the ascetics, namely, the rules for the rainy season (Pajjusan).It has been conjectured that this, the
oldest section of the Kalpa Sutra was the work of Bhadrabahu.Indeed the complete title of the Kalpa
Sutra is Pajjosanakappa, though this name fits only the third
section.The other two sections
according to the tradition, were added later by Devarddhi.

So far as an ordinary Shvetambara layman is
concerned the Kalpa Sutra is his most important sacred text.It is revered almost in the same manner by
him as the Bhagavadgitais
revered by an ordinary Hindu.The Kalpa
Sutra in the present form is also the first text of the Shvetambara
Church, not accepted by the Digmabaras.

In regard to the earlier literature of the Jains,
i.e. the sayings of Mahavira and the principal Ganadharas, the Valabhi
Council reduced to writing whatever the Council thought had been authentically
handed down.These are the canonical
books of the Svetambaras.They
are called the Angas Upangas, etc. and number 45 in all.The Digambaras do not accept them as
authentic and canonical, but do not reject them completely either.

During the nearly 10 centuries that passed between the
death of Mahavira and the Vallabhi Council, many scholars had written
commentaries on these Angas, Upangas, etc.

These commentaries are called Nijutis or Niryuktis.All these commentaries would necessarily be
considered Shvetambara literature.Similar would be the position of all the other Jain literature
considered not acceptable by the Digambaras.One such example would be the commentary by Umasvati or Umasvami
on his own Tatvarthadigama-Sutra.While the text of this work is acceptable to both the sects, the
commentary by the author himself is rejected by the Digambaras.Yet another method of identifying a
Shvetamara work is by the name itself.This method is applicable to mythologies only.While the Svetambaras call the mythologies caryias
or caritas the Digambara term for a mythology is Purana,
Thus the Ram epic Pauma-cariya by Vimala Suri may be called a Shvetambara
work.This was composed 530 years after
Mahavira's death, that is, in or about AD4.(However, except for
occasional differences, the tales described in both sets of the epics are
essentially the same.In other words,
but for the name, it would be difficult to assign the epics to any one sect).

The Shvetambara monks composed a large number of
commentaries between the 6th and 9th century.These later commentaries were called churnis.One churni on the Nandi- Sutra
called Mandichurni mentions that a council had been held in Mathura
also.This churni was completed
in Saka 598, that is,676 AD,
i.e., after the Vallabhi Council.The
Mathura Council was presided over by Skandila.His name does not occur in the list of sthaviras of the Kalpa
Sutra, but Jacobi2 notes
in his translation of the Kalpa Sutra, that he might be the same as
Sandilya mentioned 33rd in the list of the sthaviras.

It is not clear what the results of this Mathura Council
were.Probably the Council did not come
to any final decision.

Another important churni of this century is that
of the Avashyaka-Sutra by Jinadasagani.This gives a long description of Mahavira's journeys during the
12 1/2 years that he wandered as an ascetic before attaining the kevalajnana.
Jinadasagani must have obtained his
facts from an earlier and reliable source, for his description of Mahavira's
travels is considered more or less authentic.

One important thing that happened during the fifth and
sixth centuries, that is, during the Gupta period of Indian history was that
the Jain iconography was standardized. This iconography is more or less
same for both Digambaras and Svetambaras, except of course for
the fact that the Digambara images of the Tirthankaras do not
have any clothes or ornaments.Two
postures were standardized for these images:one standing, called the Kayotasaras, and the other sitting in
the yogasana pose.The Tirthankaras
in northern India all had the srivatasa mark on their chests.They were also given distinguishing signs
called Lanchanas and in addition each Tirthankara was given a
pair of attendants, called yaksha and yakshini whose images are
carved on the two sides of the Tirthankara.4

At the time of Mahavira, the Yakshas as we have
seen, were popular local divinities and there were yaksha temples in all
the towns of Magadh.As the
worship of Yakshas diminished, they became in the case of the Jains
the attendants of the Tirthankaras.They however served a very useful purpose in Jain worship.A Tirthankara does not answer the
prayer of a devotee, and therefore no worshipper when he performs a puja
in a temple asks for any gift from him.But if an uninstructed Shvetambara does ask a gift, his prayer
would be answered not by the Tirthankara (who as a matter of fact does
not even hear it), but by the yaksha in attendance of the Tirthankara.

A class of deities that became quite prominent during
this period were the Vidyadevis.In the beginning there was perhaps only one Vidyadevi, viz., Sarasvati,
the Goddess of Learning.A Sarasvati
image has been found even in the Kankali-tila remains in Mathura.This can be dated latest to the end of the
3rd century (the year inscribed on the image is 54).Later, a new set of Vidyadevis were added to the Jain
pantheon, and ultimately we have sixteen of them. Their names are Rohini,
Prajnapti, Vajrashrinkhala, Vajrankusha, Apraticakra, Purushadatta, Kali,
Mahakali, Gauri, Gandhari,Sarvastra-Mahajvala, Manavi, Vairotya, Achchhupta, Manasi and Mahamanasi.All these sixteen can be seen depicted, for
instance, in the famous Dilvara temple at Abu.None of these sixteen Vidyadevis carried the usual attributes of
the Goddess of learning, viz.A book
and a vina (lute).Also from
their names it appears that they were similar to the Buddhist5 and
HinduTantrik Goddesses.It will also be noticed that the period when
the JainVidyadevis evolved was the period of the heyday of the
Tantrik movement in India.

From Haribhadra Suri
to Hemachandra Suri and Onwards

Haribhadra Suri laid the foundation of the Shvetambara
intellectual movement, which culminated with Hemacandra Suri in the 12th
century. "It is said that before
Haribhadra's time only one-eighth of the whole Shvetambara literature
available today, existed and to the remaining seven-eighths he was the greatest
contributor and inspirer by example".6It is said that he wrote 1,444 works, big and small.Of these 88 have so far been discovered and
of them 26 are definitely known to be his creation.

"Haribhadra, a pupil of Jinabhadra (or Jinabhata)
and Jinadatta, from the Vidyadhara kula lived in the 8th century,
probably between AD 705 and AD 775.He
was born at Chitrakuta, the present-day Chittorgarh, as the son of a Brahman
and wasinstructed in all branches of
Brahmanic learning.Proud of his
enormous erudition he declared that he would become the pupil of any man who
could tell him a sentence the meaning of which he did not understand.This challenge was inscribed in a plate
which he wore on his stomach;whilst
another legend has it that he laid gold bands around his body to prevent his
bursting owing to so much learning.One
day he heard the Jain nun Yakini reciting a verse, the meaning of which
he did not understand. He asked her to explain the meaning to him.She referred to a teacher Jinabhata, who
promised to instruct him, if he would enter the Jain order.So Haribhadra became a monk, and thenceforth
called himself the spiritual son dharmaputra of the nun Yakini.He soon became so well- versed in the sacred
writings of the Jains, that he received the title of Suri
(honorific epithet of learning Jain monks), and his teacher appointed
him as his successor.In all
probability he soon wandered away from his birthplace Chitrakuta, for his life
as a monk was spent for the most part in Rajasthan and Gujarat.Apart from being thoroughly well-versed in
Brahmanism, he had considerable knowledge of the Buddhist doctrines, which he
secretly procured knowledge of Buddhism through his pupils and his nephews
Hansa and Paramhansa, in order to be able to refute its doctrines thoroughly.

Haribhadra wrote both in Sanskrit and Prakrit.Probably he was the first to write
commentaries to the Canon in Sanskrit.While utilizing the ancient Prakrit commentaries, he retained the
narratives (kathankhas) in their original Prakrit form.7

Haribhadra also wrote a long Prakrit poem SamaraiccaKaha.It is a religious novel in which the heroes and the heroines are
after all sorts of adventures and through various lives as human beings or
animals, renounce the world at last, and enter the Jain Order.

Haribhadra started a tradition of learning among the Svetambaras
of Gujarat and the neighboring areas, mainly Rajasthan.UdyotanaSuri completed his
Kubalayamala in AD 778 at Javalipura (Jalor in South west Rajasthan).About a century later, sometime between 862
and 872, Shilanka wrote his commentaries on the first two Angas.He translated all the Prakrit sources he had
used, including the narratives, into Sanskrit.He also wrote a work on the Jain mythology in 869.This work is called Chaupannamahapurisachariyam.
Shilanka, it appears also belonged to Gujarat.In the 9th century Jayasinha wrote his Dharmopadeshamala in
Nagapura (Nagor in Rajasthan).

It was the learning of Jain monks, that make their
entry in to the court of the Chaulukya kings of Gujarat easy. The Jains
flourished in the Chaulukya court and both the Chaulukyas and the Jains
gained;Later the greatest of the
Chaulukyas, Jayasinha Siddharaja, and the greatest of the Svetambaraspandits,
Hemachandras were contemporaries and friends.

Gujarat in the early 11th century was divided into a number
of petty states.The Chaulukya king
Durlabharaja 1002-1022 who admitted the Jainpandit Jineshvara Suri
in his court was the ruler of Anahilavada (near modern Patan) and Kutch.His son Bhim succeeded him. By that time the
Jains had started occupying important administrative posts in this
kingdom.Bhima's minister Vimala Shaha
built the famous Adinanth temple at Abu in 1032.It is quite apparent that Vimala Shaha must have been an
immensely rich person.

The Jain religion proved attractive to the mercantile
community. This was perhaps because this rich class did not like to be placed
in a position inferior to the Brahmans (quite often illiterate at that)
who were placed higher than the merchants in the orthodox Hindu hierarchy.Many sub-castes of the mercantile community
such as the Osavalas, the Poravalas, the Shrimalis and the Shri-Shrimalis were
almost entirely converted to Jainism.

Bhima's grandson Jayasinha Siddharaja (ruled 1094-1143)
was the greatest king of Gujart.He
conquered the whole of Gujarat and became its first emperor. In 1135 he invaded
Dhara and returned at the end of his triumph to his capital in 1136.Among the citizens who went out to welcome
him home was a delegation of learned people.The leader of this delegation was Hemachandra.It is said that it was the first time that Jayasinha saw
Hemachandra.

Hemachandra

Hemachandra was born in 1089 in a place called Dhandhuka
about 100 kilometers south west of Ahmedabad.His father's name was Chachiga and his mother was Pahini Devi.They were Vania by castes.The boy was named Changadeva.(The name Hemachandra was given to him much
later, when he became a Suri).Hemachandra's father was most probably a Shiva by religion but
his mother was a Jain.The boy
was unusually intelligent.

Once when Hemachandra was still a child, one Devachandra
a Jainacharya came to Dhandhuka on his way to pilgrimage. He saw
the boy and was struck by his precocity.He thought of bringing up the boy as a Jain monk, for he surmised
that when he grew up he would prove to be an asset to the Jain religious
community.So, accompanied by the local
Jain merchants he went to the house of Chahiga but Chahiga had gone away
to some other place.He, therefore,
asked the mother to give him the boy so that he could be educated and brought
up as a Jain monk.On the
request of the acharya, and the merchants, the mother agreed to give
away8 her son.

Devachandra then took away the boy with him to some other
town.Meanwhile Chachiga returned home
and when he found that his son had been taken away, he went to search for
him.He found the boy in the custody of
Udayana who was the governor of Cambay, and Jain by religion.Udayana again requested Chahiga to allow
Devachandra to keep the boy, and also offered a considerable sum of money to
him as compensation.It is said that
Chadhiga was at last persuaded to leave the boy with Devachandra, but he
refused to accept the money.

The boy Changadeva was ordainedin 1097, and a new name Somachandra was given to him.His education was then started, and by the
age of 21 he became so learned that the epithet of Suri was conferred on
him, and he was also given a new name Hemachandra at this time for they said
that his countenance shone like hema (gold).

Hemachandra does not mention his guru often in his
writings.In fact, there is only one
instance known, in the tenth book of the Trishashtishalaka purusa-carita,
where he definitely mentions his guru Devachandra.From this it has been surmised that his
relations with his preceptor were perhaps not happy.In fact even the story of his life as given above is not accepted
by everybody.There are some other
versions of his life-story also.

Only on one point there is unanimity, that is, that
Hemachandra was one of the greatest polymaths of this country.He was called Kalikala-sarvajna - the
Omniscient of the Kali-age.In
the variety of his writings his only possible rival was Rafa Bhoja of Dhara,
but many of the works that go by the name of Bhoja were probably ghost writings
of his court-pandits.

The works of Hemachandra are said to number three crores
(30 million).In other words they were
many.Some of his works might have
disappeared.Of these that exist the
following are noteworthy:

1.Epic

Hemachandra, like many other Jain authors wrote
the life of the 63 great persons of Jain mythology.It is a huge work and is known as the Trishashtishalaka-purusha-carita.This work has standardized the Shvetambara version of the Jain
mythology.What is more important is
that Hemachandra wrote an appendix to this work.This appendix known as the Parishishtaparvam9gives the history of the Jain
Church for nearly 14 generations after Mahavira, and as stated earlier is one
of the only two histories that the Jains have written of their Church
after Mahavira.

2.Grammar

Hemachandra's famous grammar Sidha-hema-shabda-nushasanais said to have been written at the instance
of the ruler Jayasinha Siddharaja who wanted to make his capital as well known
in the learned circles as Dhara the capital of Bhoja. (Bhoja had also written
grammar, the Sarasvati-Kanthavarana.)

Hemachandra's grammar has eight chapters.The first seven chapters deal with the
grammar of the Sanskrit language, and the eighth with that of the Prakrit
language. This eighth chapter is the earliest work10 of the Western
school of Prakrit grammarians, and as such may be considered a
pioneering work.Hemcandra deals with
practically all varieties of Prakrit, viz. Maharashtri, Sauraseni,
Magadhi, Ardha-Magadhi, Paishrachi, Chulika Paishachi:and also with Apabhransa.11

In the first seven chapters that deal with the Sanskrit
language, Hemchandra shows his acquaintance with nearly all the previous
grammars of this language.His method
is illicit and it is found that he made use of both the systems, Panini
as well as Katantra equally,12 his object being, all the
time, to make the grammar as easily understood by the reader as possible. It is
altogether strange that Hemachandra's Sanskrit grammar never became popular
outside Gujarat.

3.Kavya

Hemachandra wrote a long poetical work called Kumarapala
Caritra.It is a life of Kumarapala
who succeeded Jayasinha as the ruler of Gujarat.The work is also called Dvayashraya Kavya, for it is not
only written in two languages, Sanskrit and Prakrit, but it also
serves two purposes:besides describing
the life of Kumarapala, it also illustrates the rules of Hemachandra's grammar.

4.Lexicons

Hemachandra compiled four lexicons:1 Abhidhanachintamani a lexicon in
the same style as the Amarakosa:2.Anekarthasangraha, a
dictionary of homonyms:3.Nighantu, a dictionary of medicinal
plants:4.and Deshinamamala, and dictionary of (native) words not
derivable by the rules of Sanskrit of Prakrit grammars.

Jayasinha, the ruler of Gujarata, did not have a son; and
therefore, there was no direct heir to the throne of Gujarat.Until his last days, however, he hankered
for a son.For this purpose he had once
gone to the temple of Somanath on pilgrimage.Hemachandra had accompanied him to this temple.Hemachandra and the Jain ministers of
Jayasinha wanted that in the absence of a son, Kumarapala who was a descendant
of Jayasinha's father's step brother, should succeed him.All the Jain ministers and rich
merchants were therefore secretly helping Kumarapala whom Jayasinha himself
disliked.When on the death of
Jayasinha (AD 1143) Kumarapala actually succeeded him, he was deeply grateful
to the Jains.

Hemachandra became a life long friend and adviser of
Kumarapala.All the Jain
historians of the period say that under his advice Kumarapala prohibited the
killing of animals in his Kingdom, and became a Jain himself.It is quite apparent that he loved
Jainism:but as K. M. Munshi says,
"Kumarpala never foreswore his ancestral faith" and "all the
epigraphical evidence describe him as a devotee of Shiv".14

However, the fact remains that in northern India there
have been few kings as friendly to the Jains as Kumarapala.

Kumarapala died in 1173.Hemachandra had died six months before Kumarapala's death.

The Jain influence has, however remained strong in
Gujarat all these centuries.The Jains
have produced not only many learned men, but they have also continued to build
magnificent temples all over the state at such sites where the hand of the idol
breakers would not easily reach.

In Abu, Vimala Shaha, the minister of the Chaulukya ruler
Bhima had built the famous temple of Rishavanatha in 1032.Exactly 200 years later, two brothers
Vastupala and Tejapala, built the famous temple of Neminatha here in 1232 . The
old temple of Neminatha at Girnar (3,000 ft) was restored in 1278.The Shatrunjaya hill (about 2000 ft.) at
Palitana was covered by innumerable Jain temples throughout the ages.
One of them, the Chaumukah temple of Adinatha was built in 1618.

The Svetambaras of the neighboring area of
Rajasthan also were great builders.The
large and beautiful temple in Ranakpur near Sadri in the Pali district was
built in 1439. It covers an area of over 4000 square meters. Dharanaka ordered
to build it and is dedicated to Adinatha. In Osia (Jodhpur district) also they
continued to build temples for many centuries.Osia is said to be the original home of the Osavala ShvetambaraJains.

5.Painting

A school of miniature paintings flourished among the Jains
of Gujarat from the 11th to the 16th century.It consisted mainly in the illumination of manuscripts.In the earlier centuries these manuscripts
were on palm leaf, and later on paper.The most popular work for illumination was the Kalpa-Sutra.(Later the art was taken up by the non- Jains
also and Krishnalila scenes became their favorite subjects.Near about the 16th century secular
subjects, mainly love scenes, were also painted.)

In the earlier period the backgrounds of the paintings
were brick-red, but from the 15th century there was lavish use of blue and
gold.The characteristics of the Jain
paintings are:angular faces in 3/4th
profile, pointed nose, eyes protruding beyond the facial line and abundance of
ornamentation.

(The Gujarat painters in still later centuries became the
fore-runners of the Rajput school of Paintings.)

Hira Vijay Suri

Among the Jain learned persons of the 17th century
the greatest was Hira Vijay Suri of Gujarat.In Ain 30 of his Ain-i-Akbari, Abul Fazl gives a
list of 140 learned persons of his time.Of these 140, he places 21 persons in the first class:"Such as understand the mysteries of
both worlds." Nine of these 21 were non-muslims.They were15 1.Madhu Sarsuti 2.Madhusudan
3.Narayan Asram 4.Hariji Sur 5. Damudar Bhat 6.Ramtirth 7.Nar Sing 8.Parmindar 9.
Adit.Thus Hira Vijaya Suri
(name wrongly transliterated by Blochman as Hariji Sur) was recognized as one
of the 21 most learned people in the Mughal empire.

Akbar heard of him from some local Jains of
Fathepur Sikri and was anxious to meet him.He sent orders to Sihabuddin Ahmad Khan, Governor of Gujarat that Hira
Vijaya Suri should be sent to Fatehpur Sikri when it was possible, and
all possible help such as escorts, and elephants and horses as conveyances
should be provided to him.

Hira Vijaya Suri16 was born in an
Osavala family in Palanpur in Gujarat in 1527.His parents had died when he was still an infant, and he was brought up
by his two elder sisters.He became the
disciple of Vijayadana Suri in 1540 at the age of 13, and a new name
Hira Harsh was given to him.He was
taken to Devagiri- a center of Sanskrit learning in those days, for further
education.He successively won the
title of Pandit in 1550, Upadhyaya in 1552 and Suri in 1553.This last title he won at Sirohi.Hence-forth he was known as Hira Vijaya Suri.In 1556 when his guru died, the Shvetambara
community of Gujarat selected him as their bhattaraka.

There was a great rejoicing among the Jains of
Ahmedabad, when the Emperor's order was received.Many other learned Jainsadhus decided to accompany
the Suri to the capital.The Jain
rules for the ascetics provide that they should live only on that much cooked
food that a householder would give him out of the good cooked ordinarily for
his household.But there would not be
that many Jain households all along the way from Ahmedabad to Fatehpur
Sikri to give alms to this large Group of sadhus (said to have been 67)
accompanying Hira Vijaya Suri.Some householders therefore also traveled with this group.They would leave earlier than the sadhus
in the morning, travel some distance and cook the daily food under a tree on
the roadside, and wait for the party of sadhus to arrive there.

Naturally, Hira Vijaya as a strict Jain ascetic
did not avail of the elephants provided by the Governor of Gujarat but traveled
on foot all the way.

Hira Vijaya Suri entered Fatehpur Sikri on JyesthaKrishna 12, in AD 1582."The weary traveler was received with all the pomp of imperial
pageantry, and was made over to the care of Abul Fazl until the sovereign found
leisure to converse with him.After
much talk upon the problem of religion and philosophy, first with Abul Fazl and
then with Akbar, the Suri paid a visit to Agra.At the close of the rainy season he returned
to Fatepur Sikri, and persuaded the emperor to release prisoners and caged
birds, and to prohibit killing of animals on certain days.In the following year (1583) those orders
were extended, and disobedience to them was made a capital offense.Akbar renounced his much loved hunting and
restricted the practice of fishing.The
Suri, who was granted title of Jagad-Guru or world teacher
returned in 1584 to Gujarat by way of Agra and Allahabad.".17

One of the learned persons who had accompanied Hira
Vijaya Suri to Fatehpur Sikri remained at court.His name was Bhanu Chandra.It may be mentioned, that Bhanu Chandra (as
Bhan Chand) and an other Jain Vijayasena Suri (as Bijai Sen Sur)
are included in Abul Fazl's list of "The learned Men of the
Time".He placed them in the fifth
class."The fifth class are
bigoted, and cannot pass beyond the narrow sphere of revealed
testimony."In other words, Bhanu
Chandra and Vijya Sena were learned in the JainShvetambara
texts, but did not have the width of vision which the learned men of the first
class like Hira Vijaya Suri had.

Abul Fasl has quite a long18
and detailed chapter about the Jain religion in his
Ain-i-Akbari.He might have received
much of this knowledge from Bhanu Chandra.He wrote "The writer has met with no one who had personal knowledge
of both orders and his account of the Digambaras has been written as it
were in the dark, but having some acquaintance with the learned of the Shvetambara
order, who are also known as the Sewra he has been able to supply a tolerably
full notice."19

It is noteworthy that until the beginning of the 17th
century we do not hear of any learned Digambaras in northern India.Learned Jains had been working in the
court of Delhi even before the Mughals also.One Thakkar Pheru was the assayer of the treasury of Alauddin Khalji
(1316) and later became mint-master during the reign of Qutubuddin Mubarak
(1320).He wrote a treatise on
astrolabes, the YantraRaja. Writing his commentary on this book MahendraSuri's disciple Malayendu Suri said, "The book was written
by Mahendra Suri who was Chief Astronomer (Astrologer) of
Firuz"(Shah Tughluq, 1351-88).

Both Thakkara Pheru and Mahendra Suri appear to
have been Svetambaras.

Minor Divisions and
Sub-Divisions of the Svetambaras

From about a century prior to the advent of Hemchandra,
we find evidence of Shvetambara sect being divided into various
groups.These groups, called gachchhas
were formed by a number of group leaders, who were generally important
monks.The process of forming these gachchhas
continued from the 11th to the 13th century, and ultimately it is said that
altogether 84 gachchhas were thus formed.20However it is likely that most of the gachchha
did not survive their founders and perhaps got amalgamated with other gachchhas.
At the present time most of the Svetambaras of Gujarat and Rajasthan
belong to one of the following three gachchhas;

1. Kharatargahchhas.

2.Tapagachchha.

3.Anchalagachchha.

If any other gachchhas still survive, they are not
well known.An important point about
these various gachchhas is that there is no recognizable doctrinal
difference among them.What
differentiates one gachchha from another is that each of them has its
own temples, and also its own holy men. The gachchhas have not however,
frozen into castes, in the sense that they are not necessarily endogamous.In fact it is difficult to specify what
purpose this division serves. At one point no doubt, a gachchha meant
the group following a particular monk, which is no longer so.

Kharataragachchha

There is also no authentic history of the formation of
these gachchhas, but there is one method by which we can determine the
latest period by which the gachchhas had been formed.It is the general rule among the Jains
that they mention their gachchhas on a stone inscription when they
donate a temple or other religious building.By the evidence of such inscriptions (in so far as they are authentic )
we know that the Kharataragachchha had been formed before AD 1090, for
the first epigraph which mentions this gachchha is dated 1147 in the
corresponding Samvat year.

The legend about the formation of the gachchhas
vary. One legend had it that one Jinesvara Suri defeated the
Chaityavasins.(Monks who lived in
temples) in a religious debate in the court of king Durlabharaja of Anahilavada
in AD 1090, for the first epigraph that mentions this gachchha is dated
1147 in the corresponding Samvat year.

The legends about the formation of the gachchhas
vary. One legend had it that one Jinesvara Suri defeated the Chaityavasins.(Monks who lived in temples) in a religious
debate in the court of king Durlabharaja of Anahilavada in AD 1022 and won the
title of Kharatara (a man of bold character) from him.21His disciples were called Kharataragachchhyas.Another legend says that this gachchha
was started by JinadattaSuri in AD 1147.Yet another belief is that it was started by
JinavallabhaSuri.

Unlike the Digambaras who generally start the
genealogy of their pontiffs from either Bhadraahu II or Kundakunda, the Svetambaras
start their genealogy from Mahavira himself.In one such genealogy22 belonging to the Brihat- kharataragachchha
it is mentioned that the Jainsangha (the Svetambaras
ignore the existence of Digambaras) broke up into two after the
37thpontiff, Udyotana.This Udyotana had two disciples:Vardhamana and Sarvadeva.The Kharataragachchha, and the tapagachchha
originated with these two disciples respectively.In any case, nothing definite can be said to-day about the
originators of the gachchhas. Kharataragahchcha is the most
popular gachchha nowadays in Gujarat, Kathiawad and Rajasthan.

Tapagachchha

The legend about the origin of this gachchha is
that one Jagachchhandra Suri had been given the epithet Tapa,
in view of his severe penances, by king Jaitrasinha of Mewar Samvat, 1285 (AD
1228).23Hence the line of
his disciples is called Tapagachchha.The members of this gachchha are found all over India, but are
mainly concentrated in the Punjab and Haryana.They run a number of educational and religious institutions.The S.A. Jain College, Ambala City,
an old institution of Haryana, is one of them.

Anchalagachchha

The earlier name of this gachchha was
Vidhipaksha.The term means "to
uphold the sacred rites."The
monks of this group use a piece of cloth (anchala) in place of a full Mukhpatti
to cover their mouth at the time of pratikramnawhich gave them th name of Ancalagachchha.Vidhipaksha is said to have been formed in
AD 1156, but the earliest inscription recording the name of this gachchha
are found from the 15th century onwards, from practically all over northern
India.

Lonkagachchhha

This is the most important protestant movement among the Svetambaras.Later movements of a similar nature, that is
Bijamata, Sthanakavasi, and Terapantha are all offshoots of Lonkagachchha.The originator of this first protestant
movement was Lonka-Shaha, after whom the gachchha is named.

Lonka Shaha lived in the middle of the 15th century. This
century is important in the religious history of northern India.A fresh wind had started blowing at that
time.Kabir, Nanak, etc., established
their sects or religions whose main principle was devotion to an attributeless
God, or what is known in Hindi as nirgunaupasana.(Obviously this was
the result of Islamic influence, but the exact extent of this influence is a
matter of debate).This atmosphere of
anti-image worship appears to have affected Jainism also.

Lonka24 lived in Ahmedabad, but some people
say that his original home was in Kathiawad.He was a government servant under the Muslim rulers of
Gujarat.One day he saw some Muslim
hunters killing birds with a trap called Chida.He was so hurt when he saw this cruel act
that he gave up his job under the Muslims, and started earning his living by
copying Jain religious manuscripts.

Once when a Jain layman gave him the
Dashavaikalika Sutra for copying, he took it home and started reading
it. Much impressed by it, he got two copies made with the help of his widowed
daughter, and retained one copy for himself for further study.Thereafter, he became a keen student of Jain
scriptures.He discovered to his
amazement that though the worship of images was very popular among the Jains
of his time, there was no mention of image worship in the scriptures.25

He then started preaching what according to him was the
authentic Jain religion which did not ordain image worship. His manners
were so charming that he easily attracted sizeable audiences.All this infuriated the established monks,
for Lonka after all was only a layman, and had no right to preach.

At about that time a sangha (a group of pilgrims)
arrived in Ahmedabad.The chief pilgrim
among them was one Sambhuji.His
grand-daughter Mohabai was a child widow. Both Sambhuji and this girl were
greatly attracted by the teachings of Lonka.Other lay members of this group also started listening to Lonka's
preachings.This enraged the monks
accompanying the sangha, and they left it in a huff. About 45 lay
members of the sangha, however, stayed on in Ahmedabad and became the
disciples of Lonka by formally accepting Diksha from him.This happened on JaishthaSukla
5, V. 1531 or AD 1474.Some say that it
happened in AD 1476.

Lonka did not become a monk, but remained a lay preacher
throughout his life; buta number of
his disciples became munis.Among them
Muni Sarvaj, Muni Bhanaji, Muni Munaji, Muni Jagmalji became well-known
preachers in later times. Lonka himself though a layman was called MuniDayadharma
by the people and sometimes the sect he had founded was called Dayagachchha.

Lonka was followed by his
discipleRupa Rishi whom he had
ordained in Surat.The next hand of
this group was JivaRishi, but by that time subgroups had already
started forming.One Bija started the
Bijamata in 1513.The main Lonkagachchha
was perhaps later calledSthanakavasi.It is also said that the Sthanakavasi
was a new group started in 1652 by Lavaji who belonged to the Lonkgachchha
and was a resident of Surat.The origin
of the name Sthanakavasi is not clear.It might be due to the fact that Stanakavasimonks were resident at one place (Sthanaka).Or again as Schubring says, "By this
name such Jains are designated as practice their religious duties not in
the temple but exclusively at some profane place (sthanaka) i.e. in a upasraya.Another name of this group is Battisi (the
32- ists) for though they call themselves Svetambaras, they repudiate 13
of the 45 Shvetamara texts, including the Mahanisiha, for their
attitude towards the images, Sthanakavasis are also called Dhundhiya or
Dhundhak, meaning the futile "seekers" in the script.

The Terapanthis

Whatever be its name, the original Lonkagachchha
or Stanakavasi sect survived nearly intact up to 1760.In that year was started the most important
of the reform movements in the Shvetamara community in the recent years.One Bhikhanji, an Osavala sakhu
belonging to the Marwar area started the Terapanthi sect out of the Sthanakavasis.Many legends are current about the origin of
the name Terapanthi. The one that the Terapan this themselves
like is that this sect believes firmly in the observance of the 13 principal
tenets of Jainism, viz., the 5 Mahavratas (vows), the 5 Samitis
(rule of Conduct) and the 3 Guptis (control of mind, body, and speech).

The Sthanakavasis who did not accept the Terapanthi
reforms were known as Va-is-tola.

Terapanthism is still a vigorous movement.One reason for its strength is the rule laid
down by the founder Bhikhanji that there should be only acharya (leader)
of the sect.This has reduced the
chances of schisms.The present acharya
Tulsiramji (b. 1914) is the ninth acharya of the sect.

References

1.Winternitz, op. cit., p. 464.

2.Sacred Books ofThe East
Vol. XXII, p. 294n.

3. For the lanchanas
and the names of Yakshas and Yakshinis, See, appendix III.

13. Munshi says that there is no epigraphical evidence for
this.Glory that was Gurjara Desa, p.
341.

14.Ibid., p. 352.

15.Ain-i-Akbari, Blochman's translation, p. 608.

16. Most of the facts about Hira Vijaya Suri have been
extracted from "Samrat Akbar O Jaincharyagana" by Amritalal
Shil in the Bengali Magazine "Pravasi" of Jyestha 1923.

17.Vincent Smith, Akbar the Great Mogul, p. 119.

18. 24 pages in the translation of Vol. III of the Ain-i-
Akbari.

19.Ibid., p. 222.

20. Muni Uttar Kamal Jain in his Jain Sects and
Schools gives lists of names of the Gachchhas.The total number of Gachchhas listed by him is 117.Much of the information about gachchhas
given here is taken from this book.

21. According to K. M. Munshi, it was on this occasion that the Jains
first got admission to the Court of Gujarat.

22. Reproduced in Appendix
VI.

23. The first epigraphical
evidence of this sect bears the same date.It is likely therefore that the gachchha was formed some-time
earlier.

24. Much of the information
about Lonka Shaha is taken from Kshiti Mohan Sen, "Jain Dharmer
Pranashakti in the bengali Journal Pravasi of Vaishakha, 1934.

25. In this matter he was
wrong.Schubring has pointed out that
there is not only a clear mention of the images of Tirthankaras in the
canonical literature, but the method of their worship is also described
there."It may be noted here that
the effigies of the Jains (Jina-Padima) are spoken of in
the canon Nayadhammakahao (Anga Vi) 210b ; Rayapasenaijja
(Upanga II) 87b, 94a, etc.In
the course of its most detailed description of a Godly residence, the Rayapasenaijja
refers to four sitting Jina Figures (Usabha, Vaddhamana,
Chandanana, Varisena ) of natural size surrounding a stupa towards
which they turn their faces, adding that a special building Siddhayayana
contains 108 Jinapadima.Their
cult on the part of the God equals that of today consisting in that attendance
of the figures by uttering devotional formulae".Schubring, op. cit., p. 49.

26.Schubring, op. cit., p. 65.

EPILOGUE

The Jains Today

Of the two sects of the Jains the Svetambaras,
as we have seen, belong mainly to western India, that is , to Gujarat and
Rajasthan. They have spread from there for purposes of business to the rest of
the country.The Digambaras on
the other hand can be divided into two distinct geographical groups. The indigenous Jains of South India
are all Digambaras.Professionally they are artisans and farmers and not ordinarily
businessmen.They are tightly knit
communities and their religious and social lives are controlled by the Bhattarakas.They do not have any kind of social
intercourse with the North Indian Digambaras who in their turn are
hardly aware of their existence except perhaps when they see them during
pilgrimages to South India. Educationally also the South Indian Digambaras
are not very advanced.Most of the Jains
who write about their religious community thus ignore them.They are remembered only when the past
glories of Jainism in South India are considered. The Digambaras of
North India are spread through-out eastern Rajasthan, Haryana, U.P. and Bihar,
in small scattered communities.

Talking of Jains, it appears that the one great
fear that pervades throughout the community is that of being lost in the great
ocean that is Hinduism.This fear
appears to be a recent one, and in any case perhaps not more than 50 years
old.Formerly, (and even today among
the rich) it was quite common for ShvetambaraJain Agravales and
non- Jain Agrawales to intermarry, the bride adopting the religion of
the husband.Indeed, the term Hindu was
never used, the term for the religion of the non-Jain Agrawales being
Vaishnava.Among the Osavales of
Rajasthan today some are Jains and the others call themselves
Vaishnavas.Things are, however,
changing.Inter-marriages between the Jains
and the non-Jains are not very much liked by the leaders of the Jain
society today."Now there is a
growing tendency to eradicate every non-Jain element from the Jain
community. As a result many Jains have stopped keeping marital relations
with the Hindus."1

There is one interesting difference between Hinduism and
Jainism. The Hindus have no religious creed, but they have a large literature
on social customs and civil law. These are known as the Dharmashastras. The Jains
on the other hand, one might say, have a religious code of conduct enshrined in
their five vows; but they do not have any ancient law book. Thus for instance,
marriage among the Hindus is a religious matter, while for the Jains it
is more or less a contract. "It is not ordained in Jain religion to
marry for the emancipation of soul. Marriage is not concerned with life
here-after! When no offerings are to be made to the forefathers, the question
of discharging obligations due to departed ancestors does not arise. Jain
scriptures do not lay down elaborate rules and regulations regarding
marriage."2 The later day Jain religious books like the Adi
Purana or the Trivarnikachara generally quote the corresponding
Hindu rules for social matter.For
instance, such books mention the same eight forms of marriages as are mentioned
in the Manusmriti. In theory, the Jains also allow the remarriage
of widows and quote the same shloka that occurs in the Hindu Parashara-Smriti
on the basis of which Ishvara Chandra Vidyasagar was able to get the law on the
remarriage of the Hindu widows enacted. According to Nathu Ram Premi, the Jain
work Dharmapariksha (11th century) supports the view that the word patau
occurring in this shloka means a legally married husband, even though
the grammatically correct form for such meaning should be patyau.3 In
any case widows' remarriage among the Jains follow the regional caste
customs. It is not uncommon in the South, while it not socially favored in
North. In the matter of exogamy the Jains follow the same rules as their
Hindu neighbors. For instance, in the Karnataka region marriages between
cross-cousins and even marriages between maternal uncles and nieces are quite
common, while in the North the Jains leave out the same number of gotras
as their Hindu neighbors do; and also observe the same rituals. Thus the
marriage ceremony is considered to have been completed as soon as the saptapadi
or a similar ritual, has been performed.

There is a big difference between the Hindus and the Jains
in their manner of treating the ascetics. Among the Hindus an ascetic is for
all practical purposes outside the society.There is in theory no relationship between him and the lay society,
unless of course, he becomes a God-man. This is not the position among the Jains.
The Jain ascetic maintains a life-long relationship with the lay
society, and is generally treated as a religious teacher. The society not only
provides food and, if necessary, shelter to him but also maintains a constant
watch on his behavior. No transgression of the ascetic vow is tolerated. For
instance,one Jinavardhana who had
become the 55th leader of the ShvetambaraKharataragachchha was
removed from the Suri ship for breaking the fourth vow.4 Thus,
since a Jainsadhu need neither worry about his food nor is
allowed to be away from the watch-full eyes of the society, so the only thing
he can do to spend his time is to read and write. All through the ages,
therefore, there have been innumerable writers among the Jainsadhus
and the volume of writings they have produced is enormous.The quality however has not, except in rare
cases, been commensurate with the quantity. The Jain religious
philosophy being practically frozen from the time of Mahavira, there is little
scope of speculation. The later philosophical books written by the Jain
monks are, therefore, dry. The Jain monks have also composed many works
based on the Jain mythology, but since they had to avoid every-thing
even remotely connected with sensual love, there is little of poetic value in
these writings. Nearly the whole of the vernacular literature of the medieval
period of India is devotional. Here also, the Jains were at a
disadvantage, for the Jain religion has no place for devotional fervor.

Even though their writings may not have any lasting value
as literature, the studious life that the Jain ascetics had to lead
meant that they had to be provided with libraries. Thus book collections,
"GranthaBhandaras", exist at every place where there
are a group of Jain families living. Dr. K. C. Kasliwal has anumerated
100 such collections in Rajasthan alone, in his work the JainGrantha
Bhandaras in Rajasthan.These
collections contain not only Jain religious works but many secular books
such as the works of Kalidas, and sometimes works on music also.

One valuable contribution of the Jains to Indian culture
is the innumerable beautiful temples that they have built all over the country.
Some of them being in out of the way places have escaped the hands of the
idol-breakers. But due to this very fact some of them are not well known even
to-day. As examples, one might mention the temples at Ranakpur in the Pali
district in Rajasthan, and the 31 Jain temples at Deogarh (Lalitpur Tehsil
in Jhansi district). This latter place has more than a thousand Jina
images. One of them has been described as "one of the greatest
masterpieces ever created on Indian soil".

The Jain merchants since the ancient times have
been well- known for their wealth. Not everybody was rich, but a remarkable
thing is that some of the families who were the richest in a city and were thus
given the title of Nagara- Seth by the Mughals, remain rich even now.
Two examples are, Seth Kus-Turbhai Lalabhai the Nagara-Seth of Ahmedabad, and
Jivaraj Walchand Gandhi, the Nagara-Seth of Sholapur.6 Many Jains
have utilized their wealth well. In building charitable hospitals, schools,
colleges, dharmashalas, and other such institutions the contribution of
the Jains has been proportionately many times higher than that of the
rest of the population of the country.

REFERENCES

1.V. S. Sangave, Jain
Community--A Social Survey pp. 427-28.

2 Ibid., p. 140.

3 Premi, op. cit., p. 501.

4 Appendix VI.

5 Klaus Bruhn, The Jina-images
of Deogarh.

6 Sangave, op.cit., pp. 347-48 .

Canonical Literature of the Shwetambaras

The canonical books of the Svetambaras (the Digambaras
do not admit them to be genuine) are not works by Mahavira himself, but some of
these are claimed to be the discourses delivered by Mahavira to Indrabhuti
(also known as Gautama) and to Sudharman, and which the latter related to his
own disciple Jambus-Vamin.

The Jains think that originally, that is, since
the time of the first Tirthankara, there was two kinds of sacred books.
These were the Purvas that numbered 14, and the Angas that
numbered 11 The 14 Purvas were, however, reckoned to make up a 12th Anga.This was called the Drishtivada. The
knowledge of the 14 Purvas continued down only to Sthulabhadra, the 8th
patriarch after Mahavira. The next seven patriarchs down to Vajra knew only 14 Purvas,
and after that the remaining Purvas were gradually lost, until, at the
time when the canon was written down in the form of books (980 years after the Nirvana
of Mahavira), all the Purvas had disappeared, and consequently the 12th Anga
too. This is the Shvetambara tradition regarding the loss of the Purvas.
(The Digambar tradion of the loss of the Purvas differs a little in
detail, but in addition they contend that all the Angas were alsogradually lost after nine more generations).

The eleven Angas are
the oldest parts of the canon, which at present embraces 45 texts. The other 34
texts are:

twelve UvAngas (Upangas);
ten Painnas (Prakirnas);

six Chheyasuttas(ChedaSutras); two independent texts,
viz., Nandi-Sutra and Anuyogadvara; and four MulaSutras.

These are enumerated as
follows :

I. The eleven Angas:

1 Ayaramga-Sutra (AcharAnga-
Sutra):

2. Suyagadamga (SutrakritAnga):

3. Thanamga (SthanAnga):

4. Samavayamga:

5. Bhagavati Viya-hapannatti
(Bhagavati Vyakhya-Prajnapti):

6. Naya-dhmamakahao
(Jnatadharmakathah):

7. Uvasagadasao (Upasakadasah):

8. Amtagadadasao (Antakriddasah):

9.Anuttarovavaiyadasao (Anuttaraupapatikadasah):

10 Panhavagal aniam (Prasna-Vyakaran
ani);

11. Viva-gasuyam (Vipaka-Srutam).

II. The twelve Uvamgas (Upangas)
or "secondary limbs":

1. Uvavaiya (Aupaptika)

2. Rayapasenaijja orRayasasenaiya ( Rajaprasniya)

3. Jivabhigama

4. Pannavana (Prajnapana)

5. Suriyapannatti

6. Jambuddivapannati (Jambudvipa-Prajnapti)

7. Chamdapannatta

8. Nirayavali

9. Kappavadamsiao

10. Pupphiao (Puspikah)

11. Pupphachuliao (Pushpaculikah)

12. Vanhidasao (Vishidasah)

III. The ten Painnas
(prakirnas, i.e., scattered pieces;

1. Chausarana

2. Aurepacchakkhana (Aturapratyakhyana)

3. Bhattaparinna (Bhaktaparijna)

4. Samthara (Sanstara)

5. Tamdulveyalia (Tandul avatalika)

6. Chamdavijjhaya

7. Devimdatthaa (Devendrastava)

8. Ganivijja (Gani-Vidya)

9. Mahapaccakkhana

10. Viratthaa (Virastava)

IV. The six cheya-suttas
(Cdeya-Sutras):

1. Nisiha (Nisitha);

2. Mahanisiha (Maha-Nisitha);

3. Vavahara (Vyava- hara);

4. Ayaradasao (Acharadasah) or Dasasuyakk-handha
(Dasasrutaskandha);

5. Kappa (BrihatKalpa); and

6. Pamchakappa (Pancha-Kalpa).

V. Individual texts;

l. Nandi or Nandi-Sutta (Nandi-Sutra);

2. Anuogadara (Anuyogadvara).

VI. The four Mula-suttas
(Mula-Sutras):

1. Uttarajjhaya (Uttaradhyayah) or Uttarajjhayana
(Uttaradhyayana);

2. Avassaya (Avashyaka);

3. Dashaveyaliya (Dashavai-kalika);

4. Pindanijjutti (Pinda-Niryukti).

The third and the fourth Mula-suttas
are also sometimes given as Ohanijjutti (Ogha- Niryukti) and Pakkhi
(Paksika-Sutra) and sometimes the Pimdanijjutti and the Ohanijjutti
appear in the list of cheya-suttas.

Sacred Books of the Digambaras

The Digambaras
maintain that the original Angas containing the teachings of the Tirthankaras
including that of Mahavira have gradually been lost, because the acharyas
who know them passed away without ensuring that their disciples had
mastered them. There is thus no way now of reconstructing the original words in
which Mahavira taught his disciples.The Digambaras, therefore, reject as canonical the works claimed
as the original texts by the Svetambaras; and for religious literature
they fall back upon the works that their early acharyas composed.

These early acrayas
were

Kundakunda,

Umasvami,

Pushpadanta,

Bhuta-vali,

Ganadharacharya,

Svami Kartikeya,

Vattakera, etc.

Most of these acharyas
wrote in South India. The only known exception is Umasvami whose Tattvarthadhigama-Sutra
is said to have been composed in Pataliputra.

However, there does not seem to be a unanimity of opinion
as to which works should be considered the most sacred of sacred literature and
in what manner they should be classified. Seventy years ago, when Winternitz,1
was writing, the usual custom was to put these works in four groups (they
were also some-times called the four Vedas). The distribution then was as
follows:

1. Prathamanuyoga:

Legendary works to which
belong the puranas:

Padma-,

Harivansha-,

Trishashtilakshana-,

Maha and

Uttara-purana.

2. Karananuyoga:Cosmological works:

Surya-prajnapti,

Chandra-prajnapti, and

Jayadhavala.

3. Dravyanuyoga:

Philosophical works of Kunda-kunda,

Umasvami's 'Tattvarthadhigama-Sutra, and

Samantabhadra's Aptamimansa.

4. Charananuyoga:

Ritual works:

Vattakera's Mulachara, and Trivarnachara;
and

Samantabhadra's Ratnakaranda-Shravakachara.

The present practice is to
divide the most sacred of the Digambara literature into two groups as
follows:

1. Karmaprabhrita;

Chapters on Karman" This is also called Shatkhandagama,and was composed by Pushpadanta and
Bhutabali on the basis of the now lost Drishtivada, and is said to have
been composed in the 7th century after Mahavira. A commentary on the first five
books of Karmaprabhrita by Virasena (9th century AD) is equally
respected .

2. Kashayaprabhrita

"Chapters on passions". This work is by Gunadhara,
and is also based on the Drstivada, and composed in the same age as the Karmaprabhrita.
Its commentary by Virasena and his pupil Jinasena is also
respected.

REFERENCE

1. Winternitz, op. cit., p.
474.

The Tirthankaras

The
list of the Tirthankaras of the Jains is given below.In a Jain temple the Tirthankara
is the central figure.His image is
shown either standing rigidly in the kayotsarga posture or sitting in
the yogasana posture.Since the
images of the Tirthankaras look alike they have to be distinguished by
their respective emblems.The emblem,
generally an animal, is depicted below the seat of the Tirthankara. The Tirthankaras
are usually accompanied by tutelar deities or attendants, called Yakshas
and Yakshinis.The emblems of
the Tirthankaras and the names of their attendants in the Digambara
system are different, in a few cases, from those in the Shvetambara
system. A tree, sometimes, shown with the image also distinguishes the
particular Tirthankara. These trees are called Dikshavrikshas,
for, it is said that the Tirthankaras gained their highest knowledge
while meditating under their respective Diksha-vrikshas.

The emblems and the names of
the attendants of the Tirthankaras were finalized near about the 8th
century.1

The Sthaviravali of the Kalpa Sutra

The Kalpa
Sutra of the Svetambaras gives a list of patriarchs of their Church.
This is the generally accepted list of the Shvetambara Church.
Hemachandra has followed this list, except in some cases where he has omitted
details of some of the patriarchs named in the list. (Another list of
patriarchs or pontiffs of the Svetambaras is given in the NandiSutra.
See Appendix V.)

Mahavira had eleven Ganadharas. They knew the
twelve Angas, the fourteen Purvas, and the whole of the Siddhanta.Except for Indrabhuti and Arya Sudharman all
the others had died before the Nirvana of Mahavira. "The Nirgrantha
Shramnas of the present day are all spiritual descendants of the monk Arya
Sudharman; the rest of the Ganadharas left no descendants."

"The disciples of Mahavira were:

l. Sudharman.

2. Jambu-Naman.

3. Prabhava.

4. Shayyambha, father of
Manaka.

5. Yashobhadra."

The Kalpa Sutra now continues the list in two forms:
one in a short redaction, and the other giving the Gana-Kula, and
Shakha founded by the various teachers. Gana designates the school which
is derived from one teacher. It appears to be equivalent with the modern Gaccha.
Kula designates the succession of teachers in one line, and Shakha the lines
which branch off from each teacher.1

In the
short redaction the list of sthaviras after Arya Yasho-Bhadra is the
following:

6.(a) Bhadrabahu
and (b) SambhutaviaJya.

7.Sthulabhadra.

8.(a) Mahagiri and
(b) Suhastin.

9.(a) Susthita and
(b) Supratibuddha, surnamed

(a) Kotika and (b) Kakandaka.

10.Indradatta.

11.Datta.

12.Sinhagiri.

13.Vajra.

14.Vajrasena.

The Kalpa Sutra then continues with the detailed list
of the names of the disciples, or the ganas, kulas and shakhas,founded by these nine generations of sthaviras.
Some of them are mentioned below:

6(a) Bhadrabahu had four
disciples among which Godasa was the founder of the Godasagana
which was divided into fourShakhas.
These were: (i) Tamraliptika, (ii) Kotivarshiya, (iii) Pundravardhaniya and
(iv) Dasikharbatika.

It will be noticed that of the four shakhas
founded by Godasa, three were named after places in west and north Bengal.Names of none of these shakhas
founded by Godasa, or by any other disciple of Bhadrabahu appear again in the
history of Jainism.

6(b) Sambhutavijaya had twelve male disciples, among whom
was Sthulabhadra who was No. 7 in the short list.Sambhulavijaya had seven female disciples also.

8(a) Mahagiri who presumably was the senior of the two
disciples of Sthulabhadra had eight disciples. Of these eight disciples, we
need name only two: Kodinna and Rohagutta, Kodinna's disciple Assamitta is said
to have started the fourth schism of the Church in 220 AV., while
Rohagutta is said to have started the sixth schism in 544 AV. Since it
is not possible, that two persons separated by one generation only will live
more than 300 years apart, the Rohagutta of the sixth schism must have been a
different person.Among the eight
disciples of Mahagiri we do not find the name of Bahula. Now Bahula according
to the Nandi-Sutra2was the pontiff of the Jain
Church after Mahagiri.The absence of
his name from the Kalpa-Sutra list is therefore intriguing.

8(b) Suhastin had twelve disciples, some of them founded
a number of ganas, shakhas and kulas. Some of these ganas,
kulas, etc. are found in the inscriptions on the Jain ruins at
Kankalitila at Mathura. These prove that the long lists of names of the ganas,
kulas, shakhas, etc., are not fictitious and some at least of these
names, occurring in the Kalpa Sutraactually existed.Unfortunately,
the Mathura inscriptions do not name any contemporary pontiffs. We are thus
unable to establish the chronology of these leaders of the Jain Church
from these independent sources.

Among the twelve disciples of Suhastin, only 9(a)
Susthita and 9(b) Supratibuddha who became joint Pontiffs after Suhastin,
matter for this purpose because only the ganas,kulas, etc., founded by them can be
traced in the Mathura inscriptions. These two pontiffs founded the Kautika gana.This gana finds the largest number of
mention in the Mathura inscriptions. The gana itself was divided into
four kulas.

The names of the kulas are as below:

As
mentioned in theAs
found in the MathuraKalpa Sutrainscriptions

BambhalijjaBrahmadasika

VacchalijjaVacchaliya

VanijjaThaniya
or Sthaniya

PanhavahanayaPanhavahanava

Similarly
for the shakhas, we have:

UchchanagariUchchhenagari

Vidyadhari

VajriVajri
or Veri

MajjhimillaMajhima

It will be noticed that the the shkahas is not
found in the Mathura inscriptions.

Next to the Kautika gana,
the largest number of thc Jain inscription of Mathura mention the Varana
gana. Now no such gana is mentioned in the Kalpa-Sutra.Kalpa-Sutra however mentions the
Charana gana. It has been conjectured3 that since the Brahmi
letters Cha and Va look
similar, the name of the gana should be read Varana, and there is
copyist's error in the Kalpa-Sutra. If we accept this then we find the
similarity in the names of the kulasof this gana as
follows:

Kulas of the Charana ganaKulas of the Varana gana

the
Kalpa-Sutramentioned
in the Mathura

inscriptions

a.
Vacchalijjai
(Vacchali) yato

b.
Pritidharmikaii.
Petavamika

c.Halijja

d.
Pushyamitrikaiii.
Pushyamitriya

e.Malijja

f.
Aryachetaka
iv. Aryachetiya

g.
Kanhasahav. Kaniyasika vi. Arya-Hattakiya.

vii.Ayyabhisty

viii.Nadika

The Charana gana of the Kalpa-Sutra was founded
byShrigupta, one of the disciples of
Suhastin. This gana also had four shakhas. Their correspondence
with the Mathura inscriptions is as follows:

shakhas of the Charanashakhas
of the Varana gana gana of Kalpa Sutraof
Mathura inscriptions

a.
Haritamalakarii
Haritamalakadhi

b.
Samkashikaii. Sam
(kasiya)

c.Gavedhuka

d.Vajranagariiii.
Vajanagari

iv.
Oda

The similarity in the names
is striking. It seems, therefore, that the conjecture is correct, and the Charanagana of the Kalpa-Sutra should be read as Varana gana as
found in the Mathura inscriptions.

The next two pontiffs of the
Church were:

10. Indradatta who was one of
the five disciples of the joint teachers Susthita and Supratibuddha, and-

11. Datta

Hemachandra in this Sthaviravali
has completely ignored these two pontiffs. The Kalpa-Sutra also does not
add anything more about them except to mention their gotras. In fact we
are not even told whose disciple Datta was. The next two pontiffs were-

12. Sinhagiri who was a
disciple of Datta, and -

13. Vajra who was a disciple
of Sinhagiri.

We do not know whose disciple
14. Vajrasena was.

Vajrasena is the last pontiff
named in the short list of the Kalpa-Sutra. The longer list gives 19
more names of successive pontiffs in a string, starting with Pushyagiri and
ending with Shandilya. After this the Kalpa-Sutra has sixgathas giving the names of six more
pontiffs. The last of these six is Kshamashra-Mana-Devarddhi the president of
the Vallabhi Council. The canonical books of the Svetambaras were
reduced in writing in this Council. The names of these 25 pontiffs are:

15. Pushyagiri

16. Phalgumitra

17. Dhanagiri

18. Sivabhuti

19. Bhadr

20. Nakshatra

21. Raksa

22. Naga

23. Jehila

24. Vishnu

25. Kalka

26. SamPalita and Bhadra

27. Vriddha

28. Sanghapalita

29. Hastin

30. Dharma

31. Sinha

32. Dharma

33. Shandilya

34. Jambu

35. Nandita

36. KshamashRam Deshiganin .

37. KsamashRamna
Sthira-gupta.

38.Dharma.

39. KshamashRamna Devarddhi.

REFERENCES

1.Note by Jacobi, in Sacred
Books of the East. Vol. xxii, p. 288n

2. See Appendix V.

3 J. P.Singh, Aspects of Early Jainism, p. 43.

Sthaviravali of the NandiSutra

A sthaviravali
(list of successive pontiffs) is given in the first chapter of the Nandi-Sutra.
The Nandi-Sutrasthaviravali agrees with the one given in the Kalpa-Sutraup to Mahagiri and Suhatthi (9), but
thereafter it differs completely from the one given in the latter. The Nandi-Sutra
sthaviravali is not wel1-known among the Svetambaras, and in fact,
except for Mangu (15), there is no legend known at present about any of these
other pontiffs mentioned in the list.

The NandiSutra
sthaviravali is as follows:

1. Suhamma of Aggivesanam gotta.

2. Jambu of Kasavam gotta.

3. Pabhaba of Kaccayana gotta.

4. Sijjambhava of Vaccha gotta.

5. Jasabhadda of Tungiya gotta.

6. Sambhuya, of Madharam gotta.

7. Bhaddabahu of Pa-innam gotta.

8. Thulabhadda of Goyama gotta.

9. Mahagiri and Suhatthi, of
Vaccha gotta.

10. Bahula of Kosiya gotta.

11. Sayam of Hairya gotta.

12. Samajja of Moha-i.gotta.

13. Samdilla of Kosiya gotta.

14. Ajja Samudda.

15. Ajja Mangu.

16. Ajja Dhamma.

17. Bhaddagupta.

18. Ajja Va-ira

19. Ajja Raksita.

20. Ajja Nandila.

21. Ajja Naga-hatti

22. Revati (vai nakkhatta
namanam).

23. Bambhaddivaga Sihe.

24. Khandila.

25. Nagajjuna.

26. Nagajjuna.

27. Govinda.

The Pattavali (List of Pontiffs)
of the (Shvetambara)

Brihat-Kharataragachchha

The
dates of birth (b.) and accession (a.) are given in the Samvat year.

1.Sudharma

2. Jambu

3. Prabhava

4. Sayyambhava

5. Yashobhadra

6. Sambhutavijaya

7. Bhadrabahu

8. Sthulabhadra

9. Mahagiri

10. Suhasti

11. Susthita

12. Indra

13. Dinna

14. Sinhagiri

15. Vajra

16. Vajrasena

17. Chandra

18. Samantabhadra

19. Vriddhadeva

20. Pradyotana

21. Manadeva

22. Manatunga

23. Vira (2)

24. Jayadeva

25. Devananda

26. Vikram

27. Narasinha

28. Samudra

29. Manadeva

30. Vivudhaprabha

31. Jayananda

32. Raviprabha

33. Yasobhadra

34. Vimalacandra

35. Deva

36. Nemichandra

37. Udyotana

Two disiples of
Udyotana, viz., Vardhamana and Sarva-deva became heads of gachhhas which
were later called Kharataragachchha and Tapagachchha
respectively.

38. Vardhamana

39. Jinesvara

40. Jinachandra

41. Abhayadeva

42. Jinavallabha

43. Jinadatta (b.
1132)

44. Jinachandra

45. Jinapati (b 1210.
a. 1223)

46. Jinesvara (b.1245, a
1278)

47. Jinaprabodha (b.
1285, a. 1331)

48.Jainchandra (b.
1326a. 1341)

49. Jainkusala (b. 1337,-a. 1377)

50. Jinapadma

51. Jinalabdhi

52. Jinachandra

53. Jinodaya (b. 1375,

54. Jinodaya (a. 1432)

55. Jinabhadra

(Jinavardhanawho came between 54 and 55 lost his Suri-ship
for breaking the fourth vow.)

56. Jinachandra (b.
1487 a, 1514)

57. Jinasamudra (b.
1506, a. 1530)

58. Jinahansa (b.1524,
a.1555

59. Jinamanikya (b.1549,a. 1582)

60. Jinachandra (b.
1595 a 1612)

61. Jinasinha (b.
1615, a. 1670)

62. Jinaraja (b. 1647,
a. 1674).

63. Jinaratna (a.
1699)

64. Jinachandra (a.
1711)

65. Jinasaukhva (a.
1763)

66. Jinabhakti (b.
1770, a. 1780

67. Jinalubha (b.
1784,a. 1804)

68. Jinachandra
(b.1809,a.1834)

69. Jinaharsha (a.
1856)

REFERENCE

From the Bengali Vishvakosha, article on 'Jain',
edited by Narendranath Basu, Calcutta, 1896.

The Pattavali (List of Pontiffs) of the
(Digambara)

Sarasvatigachchha

1. Bhadrababu II

2. Guptigupta

3. Maghanadi

4. Jinachandra I

5. Kundakunda

6. Umasvami

7. Lohacharya II

8. Yashahkirti

9. Yashonandi

10. Devanandi

11. Pujyapada

12. Gunanandi I

13. Vajranandi

1 4. Kumaranandi

15. Lokachandra I

16. Prabhachandra

17. Nemichandra

1 8. Bhanunandi

-----------------------------------

84. Padmanandi (Delhi)

85. Subhachandra (Delhi)

86. Prabhachandra
(Delhi)

87. Jinachandra
Chittor

88. Dharmachandra (Chittor)

After this there were Bhattarakas in Gujarat. Their
names with their years of accession in Samvat year in brackets are as
belows:

Charpentier,
J.The History of
the Jains, The Canlbridge History of India, Vol. I, London 1921, reprinted Delhi, 1955, pp. 134-151.

Chatterjee,
A.K.A Comprehensive
History of Jainism,Calcutta,1978.

ChauthmaljiBhagwan Mahavira.
Ratlam, 1942.

Maharaj

Corpus
Inscriptionum Indicarum, Vol. III, 1888,

Dandekar,
R.N. Some Aspects
of the History of Hinduism.Poona.
1967.

Deo,
S.B.History
of Jain Monachism. Poona, 1956.

Desai,
P.B.Jainism
in South Jndia. Sholapur, 1957.

Dialogues
of the Buddha, Translated by T.W. Rhys Davids, in Sacred Books of the Buddhists, Vol. Il . Oxford.1899 and 1923.
It contains among others the Sammanna Phala Suttanta
(pp. 65-95) and the Ambattha
Suttanta (Pp. 108-136).

Jain,
Kamta PrasadThe Digambara
and the Shvetambara Sects of Jainism, A Volume
of Studies in Indology, Presented to Professor P.V. Kane, Poona, 1941,
pp. 228-237. It argues mainly against C.J.Shah's point in his
Jainism in NorthIndia that the Svetambarasbelong to the
Order of Parshva, and are thus an earlier sect than the Digambaras who belong to the Order of Mahavira.

JainSutras,Part I, containing the AcharAnga
Sutra and the Kalpa
Sutra; and Part II containing the Uttara-dhyayanaSutra,
and the SutrakritangaSutra; translated from Prakritby Hermann Jacobi.Vol. XXII and XLV in
the Sacred Booksof the East, Oxford, 1884 and 1895, reprinted
New Delhi, 1964 and also later.